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Business News Labels & Publishers
Warner sees revenues increase, but losses grow too
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 9 August 2013
Warner Music Group yesterday announced its financial results for the last quarter, with revenues across the whole company increasing by 1.8% year-on-year.
Recorded music revenues increased by 3.3%, while digital revenues on recordings were up by 9.8% on the same quarter last year, representing 44.8% of total recorded music income. Comparatively, revenues on physical releases dropped by 5.8%.
Meanwhile, publishing revenue declined 2.8%, though digital revenue there increased too by 46.7%. Warner explained that the decline in overall publishing revenue year-on-year was down to a one-off settlement in the same quarter of 2012 of $4 million relating to a sync.
Losses for the whole group doubled to $63 million in the quarter. The company put the increased losses down to higher taxes, reduced interest and the re-pricing of its loan facility in May this year. Speaking of which, the company’s total debt at the end of June topped $2 billion.
WMG CEO Stephen Cooper was upbeat about the results, saying: “We recorded a solid quarter, having released several successful albums and delivered strong performance from carryover releases, while continuing to exercise financial discipline and to benefit from the outstanding execution of our operators. We are also very pleased that, on 1 Jul, we closed the acquisition of Parlophone Label Group and we are now moving forward with our plans for Parlophone’s extraordinary artists, legendary catalogue and talented team”.
Executive Vice President and CFO Brian Roberts added: “Both recorded music and music publishing contributed to an increase in our total digital revenue, and both segments contributed to our improved OIBDA and OIBDA margin this quarter. In addition, we paid down $175 million in debt during the quarter”.
