Warner Music Not in Harmony With Jobs

With his company reporting a 74% plunge in first-quarter earnings amid music industry sales declines, Warner Music Group (WMG Quote) CEO Edgar Bronfman rejected a call from Apple(AAPL Quote) CEO Steve Jobs to halt the use of DRM copy protection software.

Jobs recently called on the four major music companies to stop selling songs online with DRM, copy protection software that is intended to thwart the widespread piracy of digital content. Jobs said that the software doesn't work, and that it limits users from playing music on different devices.

Bronfman said on an earnings conference call that "DRM and interoperability" can coexist.

"To suggest they cannot coexist is simply false," said Bronfman. "We advocate the continued use of DRM and the protection of our intellectual property. The notion that" music content should not be able to use the same protections as software products and other forms of intellectual property "is completely without logic or merit."

Warner, the third-largest recording company in terms of U.S. market share, said its earnings fell to $18 million, or 12 cents a share, for the holiday quarter, down from $69 million, or 46 cents a share, a year earlier.

Analysts, on average, had expected the company to post earnings of 24 cents a share, according to consensus estimates reported by Thomson First Call.

Revenue in the latest quarter fell 11% to $928 million, missing Wall Street's expectation of $944.8 million.