No surprises here. EMI confirmed yesterday that it suffered a 13% fall in profits in the financial year to the end of Mar 2005 - end of year profits were £141.9 million (GBP), down from £163.3million the previous year. The company say that they were hit partly by the continuing challenges faced by the wider music industry but admitted they had suffered particularly badly (decline across the wider industry was just 1% last year) because major releases from Coldplay and Gorillaz were pushed back into the next financial year. Yesterday's announcement did not come as a surprise of course because the label was merely confirming what they said in an earlier profits warning issued back in Feb.
As previously reported, Coldplay's Chris Martin recently expressed his sadness that delays in completing his band's new album might have affected EMI's profits and share price, telling reporters: "I don't really care about EMI. I'm not really concerned about that. I think shareholders are the great evil of this modern world." To which EMI bosses said: "Watch it Martin, you're no crazy frog you know, one poor selling album and we'll drop you like a Mariah Carey".
Anyway, back to the financials, and if you must find a silver lining in EMI's figures for the last year it was the growth in digital music sales, which increased from £15.1 million the previous year to £49.7 million last year. That means the sales of digital music now account for 2.5% of overall sales which, EMI bosses say, is a good sign for the future of the company in the digital age. Chairman Eric Nicoli told shareholders: "We remain confident that digital music will drive the industry forward at attractive growth rates in the coming years".