Hey everybody, here's the financial news you've all been scanning down looking for. Fancy putting Britney top, when there's Universal Music's third quarter revenue figures to delve into. Said revenues are down 2.1% on the same period last year, despite a rise in digital sales and US licensing income, and the inclusion of that previously reported 36 million euro settlement payment from Bertelsmann relating to a long running dispute regarding the German conglom's support of the original Napster (a dispute ended prior to Universal's takeover of Bertelsmann's music publishing company). Overall revenues for the period were 1.096 billion euros.
On the upside, download sales continued to boom, with digital revenues up 88% on the same period last year, to 126 million euros. That means that digital now accounts for 11.5% of Universal Music Group's total revenue. The growth in digital sales has helped ensure that, while third quarter revenues were down, revenues on the whole financial year so far are up 2.7%.
Also on the upside, parent company Vivendi saw its overall revenues for the third quarter increase, albeit only slightly. Revenues were up to 4.889 billion euro, 0.8% higher than the same quarter last year.