A hit on their hands

摘要

When a group of private-equity inves-tors, including Edgar Bronfman, scion of a wealthy Canadian family, bought Warner Music from Time Warner in March 2004, many people thought it was a big mistake. The music industry was shrinking, due in part to widespread piracy of CDS and the online swapping of music files. But the investment looks as if it will be highly profitable. In the past year, Apple has sold some 8m of its iPod portable digital music players, and Horn digital tracks have been downloaded through Apple's iTunes in 2004. This shows that people are prepared to pay for music online. So, taking advantage of investors' improved view of the music industry, Warner Music's owners now plan a $750m initial public offering of shares this spring.