Warner Bros. Records Ends 2005 In Top Sales Slot

01/04/06

Best-Selling Albums By Green Day, Madonna, Faith Hill, Michael Buble, and Mike Jones Help Label Capture #1 Market Share Position for the First Time in Ten Years

January 4, 2006 – Burbank, CA – Warner Bros. Records has finished 2005 with the Number One U.S. album market share among individual record labels for the year according to Soundscan figures released this week. In addition, it has held the Number One weekly album market share position for the last seven weeks of the year according to the Soundscan figures. "I am very proud of what we have achieved in the last couple of years. The staff and our family of Warner Bros. labels has rekindled the spirit that originally made this label a premier artist destination,” said Chairman and CEO Tom Whalley. “We have dedicated ourselves to building and maintaining a roster of many genres of music, from Mainstream to Rock to Rap to Christian to Country as well as Comedy. Our commitment to developing and creating new marketing and technology innovations has put our label in the forefront.”

Here are several company highlights from 2005.

Number One label in album market share.
Sixteen Number One albums across 11 formats: including

Madonna (Mainstream Albums), Green Day (Mainstream), Mike Jones (R&B/Hip-Hop), Amy Grant (Christian), Jay-Z & Linkin Park (Rap), Faith Hill (Mainstream and Country), Disturbed (Mainstream), Depeche Mode (Digital), Michael Bublé (Traditional Jazz), Larry the Cable Guy (Comedy), Enya (New Age), Green Day's Bullet In A Bible (Music Video) and HIM (Internet).
Twenty-two Number One singles across 19 radio formats.
Number One Music DVD of The Year. Jay-Z/Linkin Park's Collision Course was the best selling music DVD of 2005. WBR's CD/DVD combo packs, an innovation begun in 2002, have sold more than 1.5 million copies this year. Green Day's Bullet In A Bible currently stands at Number One on the Music DVD charts.
Number One digital album company. WBR had 10 of the top 100 best-selling digital albums of the year, including Green Day's American Idiot and Madonna's Confessions On A Dance Floor. Green Day's "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" is the Number One best-selling digital track of all time.
Impressive sales for Warner Bros. Nashville: including Faith Hill's Fireflies, Big & Rich's Comin' To Your City, Larry The Cable Guy's The Right To Bare Arms and Blake Shelton's Barn & Grill.
Nonesuch Records' Our New Orleans benefit album for victims of Hurricane Katrina sold 30,000 in its second week of release. Net proceeds from the collection of newly recorded songs by New Orleans artists were donated to Habitat for Humanity.

Worldwide sales. WBR achieved 63 Number One albums in 32 countries, 117 international platinum album awards, and 66 international gold album awards.

Long known as an artist-friendly label, Warner Bros. advanced that reputation when Whalley came on board as chief executive in 2001. Whalley, whom the Los Angeles Times has called "the most consistent discoverer of talent in the record business," has led his staff to nurture both emerging and established acts alike through innovative marketing and promotion ideas, embracing new technologies and strong artist development.