I recently read an article in the form of a transcript. The participants were all part of WMG; these individuals were Jill Kutrick (Senior VP, Investor Relations), Edgar Bronfman, Jr. (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer), and Steve Macri (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer). The analysts were various members of different financial institutions. Kutrick began the call, introducing the CEO's and their respective positions. She went on to state that projected expectations would also be included in the report, and warned investors not to rely solely on "forward-looking statements".
Bronfman proceeded by first mentioning the recent developments at WMG which would help facilitate forward movement in the record industry's transition. He went on to note that "For the first six months of this year the industry saw U.S. album unit sales rise. The first time that’s happened since 2004, which is an encouraging development. And in just the past couple of months we have seen the announcement and introductions of a number of new and exciting digital music services. And the emergence of other products and business models including various cloud based offerings."
He also mentioned the steps governments and technology partners worldwide are taking to protect copyright. Most importantly, as with any financial discussion, are the actual numbers. Bronfman noted WMG "delivered the greatest U.S. album share growth of 23% between 2004 and 2010 of any major music group", and "(WMG's) U.S. recorded music business grew its digital revenue to 48% of total U.S. recorded music revenue, up from 41% last year. And Warner Music Group’s total worldwide digital revenue grew by 9%".
Macri sufficiently backed Bronfman by further providing more evidence of recent success. "This quarter we delivered solid performance across our businesses. Revenue was largely stable...We reported revenue of $686 million down just 1% year-over-year with international growth of 5% largely offsetting domestic declines. Quarterly digital revenue was $203 million 30% of total revenue. We saw particularly strong growth in global digital downloads, while newer revenue from streaming businesses, such as Spotify also increased." He also went on to mention their targeted cost savings for the following 9 fiscal periods, critical, especially in the economy's current state. He also mentioned a loss on their free cash flow of $36 Million due to investments.
Overall, they were satisfied with the how the business operated for the period, and stated they were confident of their future plans.
Source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/285352-warner-music-group-s-ceo-discusses-f3q2011-results-earnings-call-transcript
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