Warner Music profit

Warner Music Group on Tuesday said that its quarterly profit nearly doubled due to higher margin digital music sales during the holiday season and lower expenses. Reuters reports that the company's net income for the first quarter ended on Dec. 31 rose to $69 million, or 46 cents per share, from $36 million, or 31 cents per share, a year earlier, while revenue fell 4 percent to $1.04 billion--due to the exchange-rate fluctuations and the May 2005 sale of its sheet music business, which had contributed $15 million in the year-earlier period. The report says that Warner's digital revenue rose to $69 million, up 30 percent from the fourth quarter, and nearly triple that of a year earlier, due in part to online music sales at services such as Apple iTunes music store and Napster as well as mobile ringtones. Interesting, the US accounted for about 70 percent of digital music sales, which were split evenly between Internet downloads and ringtones.

by MacNN Staff