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European Music Day Boosts Spanish Sales

June 27, 2007 -

By Howell Llewellyn, Madrid

Music sales across some 120 stores in Spain have soared thanks to discounts to mark European Music Day on June 21.FNAC, the French-owned music and book retail chain, offered a 16% discount on all recorded music for three days from June 21 to June 23. And Spain's biggest department store chain, El Corte Ingles, gave a 21% discount at its 72 outlets during the same week for all recorded music and music DVD sales.Moreover, Hipercor, El Corte Ingles' hypermarket division, also offered the 21% discount at its 33 outlets. FNAC has been offering discounts to celebrate European Music Day for 10 years, and El Cortes Ingles for six years.Neither FNAC nor El Corte Ingles would give figures, but El Corte Ingles director of music purchases Javier Sanchez, says discount sales this year were higher than last year. And each discount sale has been "a success" since the price drop was launched six years ago.FNAC spokesperson Natalia Mereda did not refute Spanish press reports that spoke of an expected 25% music-sales revenue increase this month (June), compared with the retailer's first June discount campaign 10 years ago."All I can say is that this year's discount has been a big success," she says, pointing out that FNAC's 16% discount is also a protest against Spain's 16% value-added tax on recorded music carriers, when the VAT on books is only 4%."European governments need to be convinced that a [Rolling] Stones album should not have to pay more taxes than a book by Shakespeare," says Ramon Reboiras, director of FNAC Cultural Action in Spain. Complementing these discount policies were the dozens of free concerts on June 21 in several Spanish cities. They were organized by, among others, indie-label association UFI, artists collecting society AIE, public national music radio network Radio 3, plus brand owners such as Dutch beer maker Heineken. FNAC organized five concerts in five cities on June 21 in conjunction with Radio 3 and UFI.

EMI, Universal Music get digital sales boost
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
Last Update: 9:19 AM ET Apr 20, 2006

(This updates to correct the timeframe for EMI's revenue outlook in the second paragraph.)
LONDON (MarketWatch) --

Europe's two largest music recording companies, EMI Group and Universal Music Group, reported increasing revenue on Thursday, underscoring the growing importance for both firms of selling music over the Internet. EMI Group (UK:EMI: news, chart, profile) said revenue in the 12 months to March 31 should grow by nearly 4%, with its digital revenue rising by 150%.
Digital revenue accounts for more than 5.5% of EMI's music revenue for the year.

Universal Music Group, a unit of Vivendi Universal , meanwhile reported an 8.4% comparable sales rise during the first quarter.
Digital sales rose 146% and represented 10% of total revenue, Universal Music said.
The rivals to Warner Music unveiled the digital sales figures alongside a profit forecast for the Britain-based EMI and a sales update from Vivendi.

EMI said it expects pretax profit before amortization and goodwill to rise by around 12% during the fiscal year.
EMI said its growth got a lift from releases by artists like Coldplay, Robbie Williams and the Rolling Stones. Local market stars like Indonesia's Radja, France's Raphael and Mexico's RBD also were big contributors.
EMI also said it plans a reorganization of its Japanese business, including a new organization structure, the sale and leaseback of two Japanese properties. The restructuring is designed to save 30 million pounds ($53 million) a year at a one-time cost of 60 million pounds, to be paid for by the property sales.
Analysts at Citigroup called the EMI update "extremely strong," since the market was looking for sales to decline and the cost-savings plan was unexpected.
EMI shares rallied nearly 8% in London.
Universal's strength in Japan
At Universal Music Group, Japan was an area of strength, with "strong sales of local repertoire."
Higher music publishing activity as well as favorable currency moves also lifted revenue, it said.
Best-sellers in the quarter were new releases from Andrea Bocelli, Jack Johnson and Prince in addition to the debut release from Ne-Yo that topped the U.S. album chart in March, the company said.
Vivendi also released sales figures for its other divisions, including the French mobile phone operator SFR, which is minority owned by Vodafone Group.
SFR saw 2.9% growth on a comparable basis, as a growing customer base and further voice and data usage offset a government-forced cut in rates.
Canal+ Group revenue climbed nearly 8% on a comparable basis, helped by rising revenue per user from its cable and satellite television service.
The pay-television sales rise offset weakness from its movie-producing division, Studiocanal, on lower revenue from Working Title, the U.K. film producer behind a string of movies with Hugh Grant.
Vivendi also announced that holders of its lightly traded U.S. shares have backed a plan to de-list from the New York Stock Exchange.
Vivendi shares rose 2.8% in Paris. Steve Goldstein is MarketWatch's London bureau chief.