Warner CEO makes much of music-making's meager margins

Apparently EMI isn’t the only major label in trouble. Warner’s CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. tried to remain upbeat during a conference call recently despite Warner only making $5million on $869million worth of sales, translating into a healthy profit margin of a little more than half a percent. Considering the scale of their earnings, it’s not surprising that Warner may also be considering pulling its support from the RIAA and IFPI. “We continue to evaluate that situation,” said Bronfman. How illuminating; thank you, Edgar. He also suggested that the lineup of artists and releases this past year has been particularly weak. Of course, Warner’s artists list is like a who’s-who of pop music, and I just don’t understand how they could fail to profit with Christopher Cross, Rob Thomas, AND the Doobie Brothers on their roster. Kids these days just don’t know what they’re missing.

Warner Music: We’re totally screwed [MatthewIngram.com, via paidContent.org]