December 2012

Warner Music Group on Thursday posted improved fiscal fourth-quarter financials and said full-year growth in digital recorded music outweighed continued declines in physical sales. “We had a very productive year,” said CEO Stephen Cooper. “Warner Music Group performed well and is positioned to capitalize on the industry’s more stable recent trends. Among our important achievements, we grew global digital and physical Recorded Music sales on an aggregate basis, for the quarter and the fiscal year.”

Quarterly revenue of $731 million rose 2 percent over the year-ago period. WMG’s loss narrowed to $18 million, or $10 million when adjusted for certain items, from $103 million, or $42 million.

For the full fiscal year ended Sept. 30, revenue of $2.78 billion was down from $2.87 billion a year earlier. WMG’s loss of $112 million narrowed from $205 million a year earlier.

For the fiscal year, “growth in digital revenue more than offset physical revenue declines in the company’s recorded music business,” WMG said. “However, this net growth was more than offset by declines in artist services and expanded rights revenue, recording music licensing revenue and music publishing revenue.”

Total digital revenue for the year grew 12.8 percent and represented 33.3 percent of total revenue, compared to 28.6 percent in the prior year.

[AlLindstrom]

Your top 10, via Forbes:

1. Britney Spears ($58 million)
2. Taylor Swift ($57 million)
3. Rihanna ($53 million)
4. Lady Gaga ($52 million)
5. Katy Perry ($45 million)
6. Beyoncé ($40 million)
7. Adele ($35 million)
8. Sade ($33 million)
9. Madonna ($30 million)
10. Shakira ($20 million)

Anybody else surprised by Sade being in the top 10? Anyway, congrats to everyone on the list, particularly Britney Spears, who had a platinum album, a successful tour, and a TV gig to grant her the distinction of Forbes Music Queen this year. [AlLindstrom]

The world’s leading global communication and measurement company, Nielsen, just released their newest report, State of the Media: The Social Media Report 2012. While the continued growth of social media is no surprise, there are several new trends that musicians should be aware of.

First, there is the idea of “the global living room” or “social tv.” TV-watching has transformed into a new immediate and shared experience. Over 33% of Twitter users actively tweet about TV-related content, making it a shared experience on a larger scale. People especially love to engage real-time during broadcasted events. TV programs are responding by not only taking in the immediate feedback, but writers are adjusting scripts based on what trends, TV shows promote hashtags for viewers, and they sometimes broadcast live tweets (if appropriate for the program).More