Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group is one of the Big Four record labels.

Its labels include Atlantic Records, Elektra Records, London Records, Reprise Records, Rhino Entertainment, Warner Bros. Records, Warner Music Australia, Word Entertainment, Warner Western and others.

WMG also has a publishing arm, Warner-Chappell Music. Its printed music operation, Warner Bros. Publications, was sold to Alfred Publishing on December 16, 2004.

It was recently sold by parent Time Warner to a group of investors led by Edgar Bronfman, Jr. in order for the parent company to reduce its debt load. This takeover was completed on February 27, 2004.

In the 2004 transition to becoming an independent label, WMG hired record industry heavyweight Lyor Cohen from Universal Music Group in an attempt to reduce cost and increase performance.

Artists whose work is, or has in the past been, published by Warner Music Group include:

• 10,000 Maniacs
• AC/DC
• The Afghan Whigs
• Herb Alpert
• America
• The B-52's
• Anita Baker
• Bad Company
• The Beautiful South
• George Benson
• Better Than Ezra
• Blaque
• Blindside
• Björk
• Karla Bonoff
• Michelle Branch
• Bread
• The Breeders
• Jackson Browne
• Michael Bublé
• Buffalo Springfield
• Busta Rhymes
• The Call
• The Cars
• Peter Cetera
• Harry Chapin
• Tracy Chapman
• Cher
• Chicago
• Eric Clapton
• Natalie Cole
• Judy Collins
• Alice Cooper
• Christopher Cross
• The Cure
• Sammy Davis, Jr.
• Dokken
• The Doobie Brothers
• The Doors
• Down
• The Eagles
• Missy Elliott
• Aretha Franklin
• Stan Freberg
• Emmylou Harris
• Faster Pussycat
• Fleetwood Mac
• Stan Freberg
• Glenn Frey
• Amy Grant
• Green Day
• Jimmie Dale Gilmore
• Nanci Griffith
• Bill Haley and His Comets
• Sara Hickman
• Faith Hill
• Hoodoo Gurus Rock
• The Housemartins
• Huey Lewis and the News
• James Ingram
• Colin James
• Etta James
• Jane's Addiction
• Ben Jelen
• The Jimi Hendrix Experience
• Howard Jones
• Quincy Jones
• Spike Jones
• Chaka Kan
• Ben E. King
• L.T.D.
• Tom Lehrer
• Gordon Lightfoot
• Lillix (a Canadian girl group)
• Linkin Park
• Madonna
• Miriam Makeba
• Ziggy Marley
• Dean Martin
• Michael McDonald
• Maggie McNeal
• Sergio Mendes
• Natalie Merchant
• Metallica
• Joni Mitchell
• Moby
• Morrissey
• Van Morrison
• Alanis Morissette
• Mötley Crüe
• Nada Surf
• Me'shell Ndegeocello
• Phil Ochs
• Ol' Dirty Bastard
• Pantera
• Laura Pausini
• Teddy Pendergrass
• Peter, Paul & Mary
• Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
• Phish
• Pixies
• The Pogues
• The Pretenders
• Prince
• The Prodigy
• The Ramones
• R.E.M.
• Leon Redbone
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Linda Ronstadt
• Tom Rush
• Patrice Rushen
• David Sanborn
• Georgia Satellites
• Peter Schilling
• The Sex Pistols
• Shifty
• Carly Simon
• Paul Simon
• Nina Simone
• Simply Red
• Frank Sinatra
• Nancy Sinatra
• The Sisters of Mercy
• The Smiths
• Phoebe Snow
• Staind
• Dave Stewart
• Rod Stewart
• The Stooges
• Story of the Year
• The Sugarcubes
• Keith Sweat
• Sweetwater
• Tangerine Dream
• James Taylor
• They Might Be Giants
• Third Eye Blind
• The Velvet Underground
• Violent Femmes
• Tom Waits
• Grover Washington Jr.
• Ween
• X (US)
• Peter Yarrow
• Yes
• Warren Zevon

Contents

1 Reporting briefs 2 Glossary 3 See also 4 External links 4.1 Data

Reporting briefs

S-1 amended 2005-04-07

• Page 11 - Income - Revenue for "Twelve Months Ended September 30, 2004" is in line with "Fiscal Years Ended November 30, 2000" revenue.
• 12 - Balance sheet - "Total debt (including current portion of long-term debt)" increased from $120 million at the end of 2003 to $2,262 million at the end of 2004. (see page F-4 "Consolidated and Combined Balance Sheets" for a detailed balance sheet).

• 36 - The transacations - The Acquisition - On March 1, 2004, Acquisition Corp., an indirect subsidiary of Warner Music Group, acquired substantially all of Time Warner's music division. The initial purchase price for the Acquisition was $2.595 billion (subject to customary post-closing adjustments), consisting of $2.560 billion in cash and $35 million in non-cash consideration in the form of warrants issued to Historic TW.
• 36 - The transacations - The Original Financing and the Acquisition Corp. Refinancing - We financed the Acquisition, related fees and expenses and a portion of our identified restructuring costs through our Original Financing of (i) $1.15 billion of borrowings under the term loan portion of Acquisition Corp.'s senior secured credit facility, which, in addition to the term loan facility, includes a $250 million revolving credit facility, (ii) borrowings under a $500 million senior subordinated bridge loan facility and (iii) a $1.25 billion aggregate initial capital investment by the Investors. See "Description of Indebtedness."

• 104 - Industry overivew - Recorded Music - Recorded music is one of the primary mediums of entertainment for consumers worldwide and in 2004, generated $32.1 billion in retail sales.
• 107 - Industry overivew - Music Publishing - The worldwide music publishing market was estimated in a report published by Enders Analysis in April 2004 to have generated approximately $3.7 billion in revenues in 2003.

• F-4 - Consolidated and Combined Balance Sheets - A comparison between November 30, 2003 and September 30, 2004 - Current liabilities increased from $1,645 million to $2,180 million largely due to a "Note payable to shareholders" on $342 million. Total long term liabilities increased from $1,252 million (2,897-1,645) to $2,630 million (4,810-2,180). Shareholders' equity decreased from $1,587 million to $280 million.

Glossary

Glossary and guide to reading its financial reporting

From S-1 SEC filing:

• Use of OIBDA - We evaluate our operating performance based on several factors, including our primary financial measure of operating income (loss) before non-cash depreciation of tangible assets, non-cash amortization of intangible assets and non-cash impairment charges to reduce the carrying value of goodwill and other intangible assets (which we refer to as "OIBDA"). We consider OIBDA to be an important indicator of the operational strengths and performance of our businesses, including the ability to provide cash flows to service debt. However, a limitation of the use of OIBDA as a performance measure is that it does not reflect the periodic costs of certain capitalized tangible and intangible assets used in generating revenues in our businesses. Accordingly, OIBDA should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, operating income (loss), net income (loss) and other measures of financial performance reported in accordance with U.S. GAAP. - OIBDA (operating income before depreciation and amortization) is earings at the same level in the income statement as EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization). OIBDA is the net income with expenses for income tax, interest income/expense, depreciation, amortization backed out.

See also

• List of record companies

External links

• WMG (http://www.wmg.com/)

Data

• Yahoo! - Warner Music Group Company Profile (http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/103/103153.html)
• SEC filings (http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001319161&owner=exclude)de:Warner Music Groupfr:Warner Music Group