EMI which is the world's 3rd largest music company reports both higher sales and profits since the end of March. These have been higher than during the same period last year. A good portion of their sales came from the Coldplay's 3rd album "X & Y" which reached the top of the charts across 32 countries, selling about 6 million copies in total.
Since the Supreme Court ruled that P2P companies can be held liable for user's actions on their networks, EMI as well as many other record labels seen a boost in the past month. In the first half of this year, US album sales fell by 2.5% to 301.2 million, however on the other hand legal online sales are still on the rise.
EMI has done some changes within the company by cutting jobs as well as dropping artists that did were not profitable enough. As a result, their net income went from a UK£71.6 million loss in their previous financial year to March 31st 2004 to a £56.3 million profit in their last financial year.
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The third album from the group Coldplay, ``X&Y,'' which topped charts in 32 countries, has shipped almost 6 million units, EMI said in a statement today. Gorillaz's ``Demon Days'' has shipped almost 2 million. ``We remain positive on the long-term prospects for the music industry and confident that EMI Group will deliver an improved performance in the current financial year,'' Chairman Eric Nicoli said in the statement today, which was issued to coincide with the company's annual meeting. London-based EMI and other music companies got a boost last month when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that software companies can be held liable if they induce consumers to download music illegally. The music industry has partly blamed both online and compact disc piracy for declining sales over the past five years. |
With EMI cutting jobs as well as dropping off artists that don't sell to their expectations, it is not surprising to see their profits and sales on the rise. On the other hand, labels that take on these 'dropped' artists can expect the opposite to happen, unless of course they can find ways to make these artists to produce better work.
Source: Bloomberg News - U.K.
[edited by freonchill on 15.07.2005 04:24]
I love this story. The Coldplay cd is excellent, and has no copy protection nonsense on it (in the USA at least) and it is one which I purchased as soon as it came out (as opposed to 2 others that I returned once I realized suncomm had polluted them). The moral of the story and proof for the music industry to adhere to: save the money you are wasting with firms like suncomm and macrovision and focus your resources on putting out a top quality product - like the Coldplay cd - and your customers will buy!
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