Surprise! Universal Music Revenues Up 5 Percent Thanks to Downloads

After having $10 billion wiped off their collective worldwide revenues this decade, the four major music labels haven’t had much to crow about. Indie labels, which have banded together to negotiate as Merlin, together are as large as EMI, the smallest of the majors. And even though digital sales are way up across the board, the dramatic declines in more-lucrative CD revenues have led industry observers into Sartre-like levels of existential despair.

So why is Jean-Bernard Lévy, CEO of Vivendi and owner of largest label Universal, so upbeat?

In an interview with the Financial Times, Levy claimed that his label had already hit bottom and was now slogging uphill (its revenues increased by 5 percent on a constant currency basis in the first half of the year).

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