EMI Music reports record results for seventh straight year with sales up 24% and total profits up 20%; 30 albums achieve sales in excess of one million units; EMI Records Group North America has best-ever year in sales, profits.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 23, 1995--EMI Music today reported record year-end results for the seventh consecutive fiscal year (ending March 31), with both sales and earnings showing double-digit gains.

Compared with the 1993-1994 fiscal year, sales grew by 24 percent to 2.2 billion pounds ($3.5 billion), and profits increased by 20 percent 295 million pounds ($478m). 1994-5 results reflect the impact of EMI's purchase of a controlling interest in its Japanese joint venture Toshiba-EMI. On a like-for-like basis, excluding the impact of the Toshiba-EMI investment, sales grew by 11% and earnings grew by 15%. Over the past five years, as it has continued to expand as a leading international music company, EMI Music profits have nearly tripled, growing at a compound average rate of 28% per year.

Jim Fifield, president and chief executive officer of EMI Music, attributed the company's record 1994-5 results to several factors, including successful releases from a wide range of artists throughout the world, significantly increased catalogue sales and continued productivity improvements--particularly in North America. 30 EMI albums achieved sales in excess of one million units, including releases from Garth Brooks, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Bob Seger, Frank Sinatra, the Beastie Boys, Yumi Matsutoya, Jon Secada, Megadeth, Smashing Pumpkins, Eternal and Roxette.

"Our record results this year are reflective of the great diversity, depth and strength of EMI's artist repertoire worldwide," Mr. Fifield commented. "International superstars like The Rolling Stones and Garth Brooks, cutting edge talent like the Beastie Boys and Smashing Pumpkins, and leading local artists from around the globe all contributed to our success. EMI performed strongly across all sectors, with North America, International, Virgin and Music Publishing each achieving record profits."

"Our improved results in North America reflect the benefits of consolidating EMI's operations under the EMI Records Group North America banner. Charles Koppelman has now completed building a team of proven, creative executives to lead each of his principal labels and I am confident they will succeed in developing exciting new music across various genres, while continuing to improve profit performance and building market share." Continued Fifield, "During his first year heading EMI's international operations, Ken Berry made great strides in sharpening our creative focus, strengthening our position in major music markets, and expanding our presence in emerging markets. Music Publishing, led by Marty Bandier, continued to lead the industry in a number of categories, while turning in another record breaking performance."

North American Highlights

EMI Records Group North America enjoyed its best year ever in both sales and profits. Capitol Records, EMI Latin, Angel and EMI Canada each had record years.

Garth Brooks' "The Hits" topped the U.S. Billboard Album Chart for eight weeks and sold more than 6.5 million copies worldwide. Releases from a wide range of established artists--including Grammy-winner Bonnie Raitt, the Beastie Boys, the Beatles, Megadeth, Queensryche, Frank Sinatra, Jon Secada and Bob Seger--all performed strongly. In addition, North America had success with emerging artists including Mazzy Star, Joshua Kadison, Luscious Jackson and John Berry.

The McDonald's promotion stood out as an innovative vehicle to utilize the wide reach of popular music to raise charitable funds and helped achieve great exposure for an array of EMI artists: superstars Garth Brooks, Tina Turner, and Roxette; a group of EMI's hottest Latin stars; and Us3, which was featured in a hip-hop compilation. EMI's partnership with McDonald's produced sales of 8.9 million units while raising almost $10 million for Ronald McDonald Children's Charities.

In the rapidly growing Latin segment, EMI achieved great success with Selena, whose career was tragically cut short a few months ago. Selena's album "Amor Prohibido" reached no. 1 on Billboard's Latin Music Charts and Jon Secada's single "Si Te Vas" was his fifth to reach no. 1. Jazz giant Blue Note launched an innovative subsidiary label, Metro Blue, to highlight unique, pop-oriented musicians from around the world. EMI Canada, the country's leading label, had great success with its pop/alternative act Moist, whose debut, "Silver," achieved double platinum record status in Canada.

Over the past two years, EMI has taken substantial measures to improve the productivity of its North American operations. Its sales and distribution subsidiary CEMA was re-engineered to ensure that EMI product is delivered to retailers in time to meet customer demand. In addition, significant enhancements continue to be made to Information Technology systems to improve decision making, order fulfillment, inventory control and royalty processing.

EMI Records Group North America also acted to improve the performance of its New York-based EMI Records (consisting of the labels SBK, Chrysalis and EMI) by appointing Davitt Sigerson President and CEO. Scott Hendricks became head of the Country label Liberty.

Virgin Highlights

Coming off the best year in its 21 year history, Virgin Records turned in record profits in 1995 with a number of worldwide artist successes. The record results were highlighted by the Rolling Stones' first album for Virgin, "Voodoo Lounge" which sold more than 4.5 million units worldwide, making it one of the Stones' best selling albums ever. Adding to Virgin's success was the release of 11 Rolling Stones catalogue albums including "Sticky Fingers," "Some Girls" and "Exile on Main Street."

New Virgin releases from Smashing Pumpkins and rap-hit Scarface achieved great successes in the U.S. Both "Pisces Iscariot" from Smashing Pumpkins and Scarface's "The Diary" reached no. 3 on the U.S. Billboard chart. Virgin had continued success with its "Best...Ever" series of compilations in the U.K. Internationally, Virgin artists achieved significant success. Alain Souchon, IAM, and Renaud in France; Enigma and The Bates in Germany; Riccardo Cocciante in Italy; and Nacho Cano in Spain all performed strongly. Virgin also had continuing strong sales from releases by Janet Jackson, Meat Loaf, UB40, Enigma and Simple Minds.

U.K. Highlights

In the U.K., EMI's results were highlighted by The Beatles "Live at the BBC," which reached no. 1 on the U.K. chart and sold more than 5 million copies worldwide. Also contributing were successful releases from Pink Floyd; the "Now That's What I Call Music" series with NOW 29 selling more than one million units; and the new rock sensation Blur, who reached no. 2 with its "Parklife" and won four BRIT Awards including Best Single, Best Album, Best Video and Best Band. Eternal's debut album, "Always and Forever," sold more than 1.5 million units. Other emerging stars in the U.K. for 1995 include Shampoo, Radiohead and Supergrass.

International Highlights

Internationally, EMI artist successes included Pink Floyd's "The Division Bell," which reached no. 1 in all major European markets; Roxette's "Crash! Boom! Bang!," which reached the top 5 in the U.K., Germany, Sweden and Spain; and, in Japan, Yumi Matsutoya's "Dancing Sun" album and Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi's "Best of" album, which reached no. 1 and no. 2 in the charts respectively.

Other strong international performers included U.K. artist Sinead O'Connor; Magic Affair in Germany; Himuro in Japan; Eric Moo in Taiwan and Ricardo Montaner in Latin America. Emerging artists performing well included the Norwegian act Trine Rein and British act Shampoo. EMI's BRAVO series of compilations in Germany sold more than 3.5 million units.

In Europe, virtually all EMI affiliates showed profit growth. EMI's German acquisition, Intercord, exceeded plan, and healthy profits were gained from recent investments in Eastern Europe-including Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland. The German music television joint venture VIVA performed extremely well, and a second channel, VIVA 2 was launched.

In Latin America, the big success story was Brazil, where sales increased 300%. In Japan, EMI acquired controlling interest in Toshiba-EMI, the number 2 company behind Sony, and 100% interest in the Toshiba-EMI publishing company. EMI achieved record profits in SouthEast Asia--with particularly strong results in Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea--and it continued to expand in the region by purchasing controlling interest in a Philippines company and making a joint venture investment in Channel (V), a 24-hour Asian music video channel on the Hong Kong based Star TV. Channel (V) currently broadcasts to more than 50 million homes across Asia, India and the Middle East.

Classics

EMI Classics enjoyed continuing strong sales from the 1993 release of Canto Gregoriano by the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo. Placido Domingo's new album "De mi alma latina" also performed strongly, reaching the top ten charts in a number of South American markets. In August, EMI Classics signed a major contract with world-renowned cellist and maestro Mstislav Rostropovich for his first-ever recording of the complete Bach Cello Suites. Classics has also enjoyed recent U.K. success with the emerging violin artist Vanessa Mae.

EMI Christian Music Group 

EMI created the preeminent force in Christian music this year through the purchase of Star Song Communications and the creation of the EMI Christian Music Group and Chordant Distribution. The EMI Christian Music Group, composed of Sparrow Records, acquired by EMI in 1992, and Star Song, has the leading artists in the ever-growing Christian music industry. Chordant distributes many of the top labels in Christian music, including Sparrow, Star Song, Forefront, Warner Alliance, GospoCentric and others.

The Christian Music Group enjoyed continued success this year with artists such as Steven Curtis Chapman, whose "Heaven in the Real World" was no. 1 on the Billboard Contemporary Christian Chart for 15 consecutive weeks and Newsboys, whose "Shine" catapulted to the top of the Christian charts.

Music Publishing

EMI Music Publishing ("Publishing") had another record-breaking year in both sales and profits, driven by strong mechanical receipts in North America and Brazil. Publishing continued to build their catalogue through releases from major artists including Nirvana, Counting Crows, Hootie and the Blowfish, Stone Temple Pilots, Enigma, Pet Shop Boys, Aerosmith and Take That, as well as representation on soundtrack albums such as Forrest Gump, The Crow, The Bodygaurd, Reality Bites and Above the Rim.

In addition, Publishing was named Pop and R&B Publisher of the Year for an unprecedented sixth consecutive year by Billboard and won the Queen's Award for Export Achievement, while EMI artists won four of the eight 1994 MTV European Writer/Artist Awards. Publishing further secured its position as the world's leading music publisher by concluding the world's largest print arrangement-- covering EMI's more than 1 million copyrights in North America--with Hal Leonard Publications.

Upcoming releases

EMI has a strong release schedule for 1995-96 including: an album of previously unreleased Queen songs; a live Pink Floyd, a Rolling Stones Unplugged; a Best of UB40; a Spanish-language album from Jon Secada; releases from Lenny Kravitz, Smashing Pumpkins, Paula Abdul and Yumi Matsutoya; and the late Latin-star Selena's first English-language album, completed just before her tragic death. It also has a strong schedule of new and emerging artist releases for the upcoming year.

Note to the editor:

New York-based EMI Music, a unit of London-based THORN EMI plc, is one of the world's top music groups and is engaged in two principal businesses: recorded music and music publishing. EMI Music has wholly-owned record companies in 37 countries and EMI Music Publishing, the world's leading music publisher, has wholly-owned subsidiaries in 23 countries.

Note: Figures based on exchange rate Dollars:Pounds of 1.62.

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