Comics on My Mobile: Warner Brothers Report Mobile Content Sales Decline

Posted on February 13, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized

According to the financial director of the company Warner Music Group Michael D. Fleisher, in the USA the level of ringtone sales has significantly decreased and during the first quarter of 2008 it will stay stable. Meanwhile other mobile products including ringbacktones, full tracks and other mobile applications haven’t yet brought much revenue.

The representative of the company also mentions that 40% of the world’s revenue (it means %56.4 million from $14 million per quarter) from digital service come from mobile industry. In the USA online subdivision of the company’s business is more developed than mobile although on a global scale the both branches stay on almost the same level.

Financial Times writes that Warner’s announcement about the decrease in ringtone sales is a true reminder about the efforts of music companies that want to compensate losses from physical sales by digital ones. Recent research by the analytical companies Jupiter Research and M:Metrics have proved that the sales of ringtones decrease in both Europe and the US.

Nevertheless Warner Brosers hope that new devices and more integrated music service by phone manufacturers will be able to increase the revenue from mobile downloads. The head of Warner Music, Edgar Bronfman, pointed out the recent agreement signed between the company and phone manufacturer Sony Ericsson. According to the agreement, Warner will be able to place its content on the mobile service PlayNow proviced by Sony Ericsson. Bronfman praises the service for “significantly enhanced user interface, content library and functionality,” which, according to his words, are the major factors of mobile business development.

Bronfman commented on the progress of the company:

“2007 was a challenging year for the recorded music industry. Operationally, the WMG team had some notable achievements this year – our highest U.S. album share in a decade, the top two labels for U.S. market share, the greatest U.S. digital album share advantage over physical album share for any major music company and more stable music publishing performance - among many others. We recognize that there remains much to be accomplished and are working towards translating these gains into enhanced value for shareholders.”

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