AfterDawn: News

Warner Music losses more than double in 2011

It's no surprise Warner Music Group was up for sale recently. They have just released their first annual financial statement since being sold back in May.

The recording industry has fading quickly in recent years and WMG's fiscal 2011 report doesn't show any signs that's changing. They reported a loss of $205 million.



To put the scale of this loss into perspective, in the fourth quarter alone WMG lost $103 million. This is 124% of their loss in the same quarter last year.

This may also explain why CEO Edgar Bronfman stepped down from that position earlier this year. Of course, in a move you would expect in an industry this clueless, he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors, putting him in charge of developing a strategy for the future.

After the wonderful job he did as CEO, what could possibly go wrong?

Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 9 Dec 2011 3:40

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• 7 comments

• KillerBug

  Funny...when you refuse to sell music in a format that people want it in and you give half your money to fascists groups, you don't make profits...who would have thought?
  

  
  

  9.12.2011 04:18 #1

• Mez

  They have lost the ability to predict what will sell.
  
  Fair pricing would help them make a profit. It seems to me, if they can't rape both the public and the artists they are not at all interested. 40 yrs ago I could buy an LP for $3 that contained more than 10 tracks. Now, after the tracks have made returns 100 times over, I would need to spend $1 a track of inferior quality. They also spend too much time on has beens and has been genres. The industry is too old. Suits are now running things instead of entrepreneurs. It is time for them to die off like the dinosaurs.

  9.12.2011 08:03 #2

• AOR Guy (unverified)

  The smart way to sell CDs for established artists or any artist these days if for them to add $10 to the cost of a concert ticket, which then entitles the person paying, a CD of their choice from that artist.
  
  Its a win/win situation as the artist gets their money from the sale of a CD and the person paying gets a CD. If your not prepared to pay an extra $10 to see the artist you dont go full stop.

  9.12.2011 20:19 #3

• Jeffrey_P

  "if they cant rape both the public and the artists they are not at all interested. 40 yrs ago I could buy an LP for $3 that contained more than 10 tracks."
  
  Did you have to remind me it was 40 years ago? ;)
  
  There is no longer a music industry. Things have changed so much for obvious and not so obvious reasons.
  
  I sound like my parents and my parents, parents but there is such a small selection of REAL music it.s pathetic. I find myself downloading some music that was first released in the 60s and 70s.
  
  Even my 29 year old daughter listens to a lot of the same stuff I did in the day.
  
  Jeff
  

  Cars, Guitars & Radiation.

  9.12.2011 20:54 #4

• llongtheD

  Music and art cannot be based on a plug-in formula to sell a certain amount of units. Quit meddling with the musicians and let them do their thing. Release your iron grip, work with them, and maybe you'll make money. For years these companies got rich riding on the backs of these artists, then they actually started to believe they knew more than them, hello "pop" music. So the same old hooks and formulas quit working, time to change your strategy.
  Unfortunately for us they will spend their last breath in an attempt to censor the internet, and force people to buy their crap through getting draconian laws passed.

  9.12.2011 20:55 #5

• Jeffrey_P

  "Music and art cannot be based on a plug-in formula to sell a certain amount of units."
  
  The music industry has been meddling for many years. The difference is the record labels wanted to control the content. Make sure the songs were no longer then 3 1/2 minutes so radio stations could run commercials and such. With A few other reasons.
  
  Now it's just about total control and lawsuits.
  
  Jeff
  

  Cars, Guitars & Radiation.

  9.12.2011 21:00 #6

• llongtheD

  Originally posted by Jeffrey_P: "Music and art cannot be based on a plug-in formula to sell a certain amount of units."
  
  The music industry has been meddling for many years. The difference is the record labels wanted to control the content. Make sure the songs were no longer then 3 1/2 minutes so radio stations could run commercials and such. With A few other reasons.
  
  Now it's just about total control and lawsuits.
  
  Jeff That's pretty much what I was getting at by calling it a formula, and saying they shouldn't meddle.

  9.12.2011 21:06 #7