While Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) certainly has been trying to make headway as music listening becomes more digital, it couldn’t fight the wider economy and the downward spiral of physical record sales. The company’s loss widened to $37 million ($0.25 per share) from $9 million ($0.06 cents per share) as revenue slid 9.3 percent to $769 million from $848 million. An analysts poll taken by Factset (via Marketwatch) called for a loss of only $0.15 per share.
Still, the company is growing its digital revenues, even if it’s not enough to balance out the losses. Digital revenue was $175 million, a 5 percent gain over last year and a slight 1 percent increase over Q109. Digital now represents 23 percent of WMG’s total revenue, signaling the online sales might be growing, but mostly, that physical sales are declining, as the recorded music segment’s revenue dropped 8.3 percent to $629 million.
| 2Q 2009 | 2Q 2008 | Analysts Estimates For 2009 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| EPS | $0.25 | $0.09 | $0.15 |
| Net Income | -$37M | -$9M | NA |
| Revenue | $769M | $848M | NA |
Earnings release | Webcast (8:30 AM EDT) | Transcript (via Seeking Alpha)
Some highlights from WMG’s report:
— Recorded Music digital revenue was $163 million, a 4.5 percent gain year-over-year.
— In the U.S., digital recorded music revenue amounted to $105 million, or 37 percent of total domestic Recorded Music, versus a 31.7 percent share in Q208. Year-over-year digital revenue growth was driven by increased global online downloads.
— Music publishing, as opposed to record sales, is still considered a good business to be in for the major labels in general. And digital revenue from publishing grew 60 percent to $16 million. However, the total publishing segment was down, as revenue fell 12.5 percent to $147 million.
— Tiered pricing on iTunes: about time: During the call, Chairman and CEO Edgar Bronfman said that celebrated Apple

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