EMI’s profits rise slightly, but sales fall
Written by steven on May 26, 2003 to Music Business.
LONDON - EMI has reported a slight rise in adjusted pre-tax profits to £177.3m ($290.2m), from £153.3m last year. However, in the same period total sales at the EMI group - whose artists include Robbie Williams, Kylie Minogue, Coldplay , Radiohead and Roxette - fell a hefty 11% to £2.2bn.
EMI had taken drastic measures to cope with this downturn, previously cutting 1,900 jobs and dropping 400 acts from its roster last year.
EMI’s Chairman Eric Nicoli has cited music piracy as “the biggest single contributor to market decline.”
There has been persistent speculation about EMI’s future, and possible mergers with either Warner Music or Bertlesmann’s BMG. “We think we will make progress with or without participation in industry consolidation,” Nicoli said. “Beyond that I have no intention of fueling speculation.”
There was some glimmer of light from the US, where EMI made a profit after five years of losses.
Other articles with the same topic
- Billboard mentions Roxette (February 26, 2011)
- Citigroup takes control of EMI (February 1, 2011)
- Kobalt signs Roxette in North America (January 13, 2011)
- Record "The Look" and win $5,000 shopping spree (August 11, 2010)
- EMI Music triples full-year earnings (May 8, 2009)
18 comments
ditroia said on May 27, 2003 09:06:
File sharing and music piracy aren’t the only reasons for the Music Industries downward slide.
Dave
Jud (moderator) said on May 27, 2003 09:20:
that’s the easy answer “file sharing is the reason”.. nah... the thing is that most of the current music is crap and those who can afford buying singles + CDs every now and then are in avarage NOT teens, are ppl who were teens in the 80es or early 90es... and who don’t like all this current crap! So since there’s not much to buy.. they end up buying nothing :P
mattias said on May 27, 2003 09:50:
Swedish filosopher Alexander Bard explained the drop in cdsales just like that - there is no variation in music, and it’s only made for a rather small targetgroup.
rox-kuryliw said on May 27, 2003 13:47:
sales fell ummm , do they know they have got rid of 400 acts lol. they are not gonna go up of they get rid of 400 people are they lol.
bunny said on May 27, 2003 20:06:
they spent so much $ signing the new contract with Robbie Williams, that’s what digged into their profit. Is it worth it? Hmm... i think they made a mistake there.
Mfan28179-Jason said on May 28, 2003 03:43:
I guess we should be lucky that EMI didn’t include Roxette in those 400 acts. Damn, 400 is a lot. They must not have been selling at all. Who knew they carried so many acts on their label?
I think some of you nailed it in saying that the industry only targets select ages of people. There’s little variety. Plus, in the USA, the record companies killed the singles market themselves - and they somehow thought people would be okay with shelving out $15 for one song they liked on a full-length album. NOT!
coyboyusa said on May 28, 2003 11:31:
well remeber when geffen and chrysalis records closed they basically bartered off their acts to other labvels or let them go. honestly the music swcene has gone tp crap, either its rap for the angry little kiddies whose mommies won’t buy them mmore baggy jeans or its greatest hits compilations for every off beat genre u can think of. There are no starts of our generation just clones it so sad
derek said on May 28, 2003 19:20:
judith is right the music of 2day is crap compaired to a few yrs ago no wonder record sales are down and how much they give out for contracts is realy stupid .a lot of the stars cant even sing they just stand there screaming there stupid heads of and getting paid millions absolutly no top class as roxette is they deserve much more
mazarin said on May 29, 2003 22:10:
Ok, sales fall. But Roxette is still profitable - even if they don’t sale so many records as during the joyride times... Even RS sold over 1 million. So EMI is not silly and kicks Roxette off.
Shane said on May 30, 2003 16:58:
Wow - EMI dropped 400 acts?
In our company, we call that cutting the fat - maybe this will be good, as EMI rids itself of some of those millions of boy groups or girl groups (that kind of all sound the same) and focuses on the true talent (like Roxette).
Stormkeeper said on May 31, 2003 23:24:
albums cost 30/40 dollars canadian and cd singles cost from 8.99-12.99
No one is going to pay that much for music. The record companies are the ones destroying themselves by raising the prices higher and higher.
LOWER the prices and start putting extra features on CDS like CD ROM Tracks or videos, remixes etc and maybe people will start buying more !
The record companies are screwing themselves and it a pity they are talking the artists down with them
hope they learn a lesson
Storm
Mr_charles said on June 8, 2003 21:43:
I‘m sorry but I can‘t support EMI. They are killing Roxette whid their non supporting stuffs.The sucks!
royalball said on May 27, 2003 06:08:
Still amazing how the industry has taken such a hit.