Linkin Park sales fail to rock Warner Music stock

Linkin Park's new album Minutes to Midnight debuted at #1 in the Billboard 200 and sold more than 623,000 copies in its first week, Billboard reports. That's the highest debut of an album since last December, and one of only seven albums to move that many copies in its first week in the past two years, according to Billboard. Warner Music Group Corp. (NYSE: WMG), the parent company of the album's label Warner Bros. Records, did not enjoy as profitable a week as might be assumed with such high sales. Since the album was released on May 15, the company has continued a slow slide, despite a peak last Friday, closing at $16.38 Thursday. Two weeks earlier, on May 2, the company was sitting over half a dollar higher.

Warner Music had been thought to be a prime candidate to purchase EMI Group PLC, before an announcement was made about that company's sale to European private equity firm Terra Firma on Monday. Clearly with decline, an offer was unlikely to be given. Warner Music has been an advocate of Digital Rights Management technology, and though such high sales of a heavily marketed album might not sway the label to ditch DRM, perhaps the stock's decline in spite of high sales might make an impact.