Vivendi Predicts Resurgence In Music Industry

Jean Bernard Levy

The owner of the world’s largest music company is predicting a return to growth in the industry as new ways of making money from legal digital downloading come to fruition, writes THE FINANCIAL TIMES. VIVENDI CEO JEAN BERNARD LÉVY said he believed his group would soon begin to see strong revenue growth from its UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP division.

LÉVY said he had been cheered by a host of new means of raising money from the sale of music, such as mobile phone maker NOKIA’s plan to charge a premium for handsets that include its COMES WITH MUSIC service that allows consumers to download unlimited music tracks to their handset for a year.

I think [in] the music business, there is a strong likelihood that we are getting close to the lowest part of the cycle.

Other innovations with potential to increase revenue included possible future deals with companies such as APPLE, as well as existing arrangements with the social networking site MYSPACE, announced last spring. 

How Not To Use The Internet

In a recent speech, CLAY SHIRKY, a new media expert from NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, described the music industry as "the skull on a pikestaff as a warning to others about how not to deal with the Internet." He said: "It has the potential to become, when you look back, one of the times where things were changing, one of the events that made things change." 

LÉVY said that UNIVERSAL, which in JULY reported first-half revenues up 5% at eu2bn ($3.1bn) out of VIVENDI’s sales of eu11.3bn ($17.6bn), "is the next surprise for our investors. I think [in] the music business, there is a strong likelihood that we are getting close to the lowest part of the cycle and we are extremely active in developing new business models, new sources of revenues. We are working with all the big names in the field of Internet, in the field of telecom equipment companies, big media companies and this is a big opportunity."

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