Valleywag: Warner Music

Amazon.com to sell Warner music in MP3 format

Jordan Golson — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 10:49:49 PST

Warner Music has struck a deal to bring its ~~entire~~ back catalog, free of copying restrictions, to the Amazon MP3 store. (New releases from artists like Josh Groban are not included.) This brings the total number of songs available on Amazon to 2.9 million, and strikes another blow at Steve Jobs's quest to remove digital rights management code, or DRM, from iTunes music. So far, only EMI and a number of independent labels allow Apple to sell music in the DRM-free MP3 format. The theory is that the other music labels are willing to allow Amazon.com to sell DRM-free music in an attempt to break Apple's stranglehold on the digital distribution of music. Of course, they're hardly hurting Jobs, since Apple's iPods can play Amazon-sold MP3 files. Did we mention that the music industry is run by self-defeating idiots?

Warner Music earnings drop because of lackluster CD sales

Jordan Golson — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:06:00 PST

Warner Music Group says its quarterly profit fell 58 percent year over year to $5 million from $12 million. Were it not for a $12 million settlement from Bertelsmann related to Napster, Warner would have had a quarterly loss. Revenue rose 2 percent to $869 million. For the year, Warner had a net loss of $21 million versus a profit of $60 million last year. The company said that revenues from online and mobile sales have risen, but this has not offset losses from conventional sales. Warner is attempting to make new agreements with artists to get part of touring and merchandise revenue, but it doesn't help that one of its star performers, Madonna, is dropping Warner for Live Nation when her contract is up.

Edgar Bronfman cops to creating file-sharing menace

Mary Jane Irwin — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:10:25 PST

Warner Music CEO and antipiracy crusader Edgar Bronfman has admitted that the recording industry shares some of the blame for the proliferation of file sharing. "We expected our business would remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and file sharing was exploding," he said at a mobile conference in Asia. "We were wrong." No, really? Bronfman relayed how the music business's "glacial" adoption of the digital era inadvertently started a war by denying consumers what they wanted. One would think Bronfman, an entrepreneur, would have realized all this a little sooner. But then again, the music business has never actually been about pleasing the customer.

Warner Music is threatening to pull out of ...

Mary Jane Irwin — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:13:39 PDT

Warner Music is threatening to pull out of Apple's iTunes, continuing the trend started by an angsty Universal Music Group. Record labels and Hollywood studios alike are upset by Apple's inflexibility on pricing. Warner's contract is up at year's end, and is considering a switch to a month-to-month deal, as Universal has done. [Washington Post]

5 lessons on how to triumph in the face of adversity

Tim Faulkner — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 15:36:10 PDT

Dalton Caldwell, founder of the little-known social network and media sharing site iMeem, is in the news because Warner Music has dropped a copyright suit against his company Instead, Warner has granted Caldwell's users free access to the label's entire music catalog in exchange for a portion of iMeem's advertising revenue. Caldwell may not be the most powerful social-network CEO, but he's certainly the scrappiest, and this is just the latest example in his history of responding well to adversity. You could learn a lesson from him Or five lessons, actually:

1. Your main business becomes legally problematic, as iMeem's file-sharing service did after a landmark case? Stay low profile — in iMeem's case, by recasting itself as a messaging network and warn users to uphold copyrights.
2. Desktop peer-to-peer applications go out of style? Migrate your site's functionality to the Web.
3. MySpace permanently bans your widgets? The enemy of your enemy is your friend. Caldwell's response? Build a Facebook application.
4. Your growth rate draws the attention of copyright owners? Make a deal for appearance's sake with Snocap to collect and distribute ad revenue to the artists. (Don't worry if the majors do not sign.)
5. A big media company sues you? Turn that legal frown upside down into a business-development smiley face. Instead of fighting it out in court, strike a deal.

Caldwell's willingness to bend but not break has kept iMeem afloat as it grew to a reported 16 million active users. The social-networking landscape iMeem competes in remains filled with also-rans who weren't as flexible. Caldwell's tenacity stands out as an example to any startup faced with threat after deadly threat.