Earnings: EMI Sees Rapid Growth In Digital Sales

The top earnings news for EMI Group is an improved financial performance thanks to the success of an oft-delayed new release from Coldplay. (This is the band led by Chris Martin, who shrugged off the damage when the company issues a warning in February and dismissed shareholders as “the greatest evil in the modern world.”) You can get those details from the Guardian or the press release.
But I was drawn to another facet of Chairman Eric Nicoli’s remarks at the company’s annual meeting: “We continue to see very rapid growth in digital revenues in both our business divisions. … We expect consumer uptake of legitimate digital music to be the key industry growth driver in the coming years.” Group digital revenues more than doubled in 1Q05 from the same quarter in the previous year, representing 4.8 percent of total revenues, up from 3.5 percent in 4Q04. Single digits but it’s steady and shows no signs of diminishing. Still, SG SEcurities analyst Anthony de Larrinaga told the Guardian, “As a percentage of overall sales, it is very impressive. But it does not tell us the run-rate for the full year, so I would be cautious on drawing too many conclusions.”

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