Warner Music's Hitting a High Note

Edgar Bronfman Jr.'s Warner Music Group (WMG Quote), once derided as an awkward investment in a troubled industry, is starting to gather a little steam.

Bronfman's $2.6 billion buy of the Time Warner (TWX Quote) music division last year, along with a group of private-equity hard chargers, was written off as little more than a vanity play for a self-professed music fanatic cum media mogul. After all, the music industry has been hit by rampant piracy and declining retail sales, trends the industry has been unable to contain.

But the tables may be turning. Described as a noncore asset at Time Warner, Warner Music now looks like a play on a management group that saw the time was right to get into an industry in transition. ...