BUNNY HEARTS APPLE

In its fiscal third quarter, Warner Music Group reported losses of $25 million, or 17 cents a share, from $68 million, or 45 cents a share, during the year-ago period. That beat analysts’ forecasts of a 31-cent drop. While sales declined 1% to $662 million, lower costs were achieved operationally and through tax-related reductions. On the digital side, revenue grew 15%, a positive stat if not a dramatic one.

The news appears to have been positive enough to Wall Street, which pushed WMG shares back above $7 in early trading Thursday.

But this morning’s biggest story line involved Edgar Bronfman Jr.’s constant references to Apple and the subscription model in his sometimes “say what?” statements during the Q2 conference call, paidContent noted in its coverage. Here’s a sampling:

“Apple has proved to be the most adept software and hardware manufacturer out there in delivering content to consumers in a seamless and very attractive consumer experience. No one’s gotten very rich betting against Steve Jobs—and I don’t want to be the first to do it.”

“Apple is not currently a retailer involved in an access or subscription model. I’d probably like not to speculate on what Apple’s plans are—it’s really interesting technology that it acquired in the Lala acquisition. That’s a question that Apple management should answer. I don’t think Apple’s [intentions regarding a sub service are] really that clear to the market, so I wouldn’t suggest it will not have an impact, but I certainly won’t speculate what kind of impact it will have.”

“We made great progress with Apple last year on variable pricing. It’s our hope that we can continue to make great progress. But I can’t say that there’s a specific initiative today with Apple.”

“[We expect] significant growth in bundling access to music with the device or services from various ISPs around the world. The ability for device makers and network operators—when they pay attention to a very facile user interface—the opportunity to add value to their customers is significant. Therefore, we see significant interest from ISPs and device manufacturers in this area.”

Bronfman also expressed the belief that the iPad will give music “a more visual experience going forward, [but] to suggest that it will create a new and large revenue stream in the short term is probably more optimistic than I want to be today.”