Music company EMI Group forecast today that sales in the global recorded music industry would drop by 5-8% in the year to end-March 2004, and said it saw signs the key US market was bottoming.
EMI reported a 12.6% fall in its own recorded music revenues in the year to end March 2003, and its chief executive Alain Levy said EMI expected its global recorded music market share to grow this year.
The group played down the need to be part of any consolidation among the world's biggest music companies, saying that it had proved it could do fine on its own.
'We have demonstrated our ability to operate whatever the market conditions and whatever the competitive set,' EMI chairman Eric Nicoli said this morning. 'We think we will make progress with or without participation in industry consolidation. Beyond that I have no intention of fuelling speculation.'
