MacDailyNews Take: Eliminate the Middlebronfman and, BINGO, “return to growth.”
Nakishima continues, “After the company reported a wider loss, Bronfman pointed to new ‘access models’ based on monthly music subscription plans, and the entry of Google Inc. and others into the business to reverse a decade of declining CD sales. ‘Digital growth … has the opportunity to return to more robust growth rates as we see the introduction more broadly of access models and new business models beyond the iTunes model,’ Bronfman told analysts.”
MacDailyNews Take: Schizo bastage. One day he loves iTunes, the next he’s “looking beyond” it; off dreaming of some other dead end tangent.
Nakishima continues, “Revenue from digital sales of recorded music grew just 3.7 percent to $169 million. That’s a slower pace than the 4.5 percent growth posted a year ago and 39 percent growth two years earlier,. om Apple Inc.’s iTunes store are slowing as the market matures, especially in the United States. Late adopters of new gadgets such as the iPod and iPhone generally consume less content than early buyers.”
MacDailyNews Take: Sales of a non-essential item grew 3.7% amidst a deep recession. Sorry for the reality interruption.
Nakishima reports, “The third-quarter gains in digital music sales were limited to markets outside the United States. Domestically, digital music sales fell 3 percent to $102 million. Digital music sales outside the U.S. grew 12 percent thanks mainly to the later introduction of iTunes and a smaller base. Sales of physical CDs and vinyl records declined 25 percent to $350 million from $469 million, according to Warner’s earnings release.”
MacDailyNews Take: Warner’s mess is indicative of what happens when you substitute poor planning, wishful thinking, and inept management for the execution of timely proactive steps. Edgar ought to be on his knees kissing Steve Jobs’ feet daily for the fact that there is even a Warner Music around today for him to continue to mismanage into the ground, not looking “beyond” that which saved his ass.
Nakishima continues, “Online piracy and declining shelf space for CDs has hurt physical music sales industrywide. Warner also suffered from fewer big releases, as its top-seller, the soundtrack to the latest in the ‘Twilight’ movie saga, compared poorly to prior-year releases such as Green Day’s ’21st Century Breakdown.’”
MacDailyNews Take: Make better music and you’ll sell more product, Eddie.
Bakishima continues, “Warner’s loss expanded in the three months to June 30 to $55 million, or 37 cents per share, from $37 million, or 25 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue dropped 16 percent to $652 million from $773 million.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Don’t worry, dummy, Steve Jobs will save you yet again as soon as he flips the switch on iTunes music subscriptions.
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