"Move to digital hits Warner Music" - BBC

[demoleft]

"Warner Music Group, the world's fourth biggest record firm, has seen third quarter losses widen as more people bought digital music, rather than CDs.

In the quarter ending in June the company lost $17m (£8.4m), against $14m at the same time a year ago.

Revenue fell 2% year-on-year to $804m from $822m, after what WMG boss Edgar Bronfman said had been a "challenging quarter" for the music industry.
...
Warner, whose artists include Madonna, REM and P Diddy, is to restructure its recorded music business to free up cash for areas such as digital distribution."

Fewer CDs sold. We tried to advise them during the years.
In Italy we were not even able to make VAT lower on CDs (it's 20% now) - being music something popular and of cultural value at the same time.
The Companies have been deaf, apparently.

Now they'll excuse us if we don't cry at their losses!

BBC link, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6935435.stm

[Deja Q]

1. I'd rather buy CDs.

Digital sucks, DRM is a joke: if you forget to remove your signatures when replacing computers (the number of allowed devices gets eaten up), and a hard drive crash kills everything. Never mind the typical 128k quality (MP3 or even the better sounding itunes) is still ridiculously low for paid-for music when 384k is virtually CD quality...

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

2. After you buy 'em, crack 'em and move 'em at will.

I'm sure there are ways to do that floating around the tubes.

Me, I only buy used CDs and then rip 'em to good old MP3. Plus, I'll only ever own DRM-less players.

[brentspeak]

3. The end of the compact disc...and ALL physical music formats

It was fun while it lasted.

[WilyWondr]

4. Suing your customers is not good for business

Why did they think declaring war on their customers would be a good business move for them?

Did they really think the public would come back to them after they took them to court?

Consumers have no need for the recording industry. They are not going to go quietly, but they will go.