Digital download sales growth slowed further for Warner Music Group Corp. in its fiscal third quarter, prompting CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. to say that the company was looking “beyond the iTunes model” to return to growth.
Bronfman pointed to new “access models” based on monthly music subscription plans, and the entry of Google Inc. and others into the business to reverse a decade of declining CD sales.
Revenue from digital sales of recorded music grew just 3.7 percent to $169 million. That’s a slower pace than the 4.5 percent growth posted a year ago and 39 percent growth two years earlier.
Sales of downloads from Apple Inc.’s iTunes store are slowing as the market matures. Late adopters of new gadgets such as the iPod and iPhone generally consume less content than early buyers.
