Warner Music Group Corp posted a wider-than-expected quarterly loss on Thursday as recorded music sales continued to tumble, sending shares down over 5 percent.
The world's third-largest music company said its loss from continuing operations was $37 million, or 25 cents a share, in the fiscal third quarter ended June 30, compared with a year-earlier loss of $9 million, or 6 cents a share.
Revenue fell 9.3 percent to $769 million.
Analysts were expecting revenue of $760.9 million and a loss of 16 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.
Revenue from digital music grew by 5.4 percent to $175 million, accounting for nearly 23 percent of total revenue.
But "industry-wide, the growth in digital recorded music revenue is still not compensating for the decline in revenue from physical recorded music," Warner Music's Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman said on a conference call.
Top sellers in the three months to June 30 included Green Day, Flo Rida and the soundtrack from the film "Twilight."
Shares of the music company fell 5.1 percent to $5.36 in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reuters August 7, 2009)
