Vivendi will be glad they weren't tempted to sell off their music division as part of the sale of their other entertainment companies last year, because it turns out Universal Music has been performing quite well of late, and has helped its parent company slow down the expected decline in sales. Sales at Universal Music rose by 2%, helped by the success of Keane, Scissor Sisters and Grammy award-winning jazz vocalist Diana Krall. That helped Vivendi cut its sales decline down to 12%.
Analysts were surprised by Universal Music's good performance and cautious as to whether it could be sustained for the rest of the year. However experts did say the news demonstrated a general recovery in the music industry, and that there was therefore reason to be optimistic about short term future growth for both Universal Music, and others in the music sector. Bear Stearns analyst Mark Harrington told the BBC: "We have to wait until the third and fourth quarters to see if this is a sustainable trend - but I think industry growth is the real driver here as opposed to it being anything company-specific."