Coldplay may not care about EMI shareholders, but surely EMI shareholders care quite a lot about Coldplay - because Chris Martin et al have certainly been helping reverse the downwards trend in the London based major's financial performance. But it seems things are looking rosier across the board at the major, or at least that was the conclusion of the company's Chairman, Eric Nicoli, at the group's annual general meeting in London yesterday. Among the reasons to be cheerful cited by Nicoli were an increase in marketshare, a significant increase in profitability in North America, and the continued success of EMI Music Publishing. Wonderful.
Comparing EMI's performance with that of their competitors, Nicoli told his shareholders: "While the global music market declined in value during the year by 5.6%, EMI compared favorably with a revenue decline, on a similar constant currency basis, of just 1.4% ... while our superior level of profitability, as compared to our competitors, has strengthened further during this financial year just ended".
Looking forward Nicoli said he was optimistic for the future, especially given the firm growth of the major's digital music credentials: "We continue to see very rapid growth in digital revenues in both our business divisions. In the first quarter, group digital revenues were more than double those in the same period last year and represented 4.8% of total revenues, up from 3.5% in the fourth quarter of the prior financial year. We expect consumer uptake of legitimate digital music to be the key industry growth driver in the coming years. 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".