EMI CHIEF IS BULLISH ON MUSIC BIZ

EMI boss Eric Nicoli is feeling his biscuits.

Speaking today at the EMI Group Annual General Meeting in London, Nicoli cited several "encouraging trends" in the first few months of the company's fiscal year, including 10 consecutive months of growth in the U.S. and positive numbers in Japan and the U.K., though he added "the markets of Continental Europe remain difficult."

He added that "digital music continues to develop, with the recent successful launch of new legitimate services in several countries."

Nicoli also pointed out the outsourcing of manufacturing in Europe and the U.S. and the restructuring of selected labels is "on schedule."

The EMI boss was particularly enthusiastic about recent releases from the Beastie Boys and Lenny Kravitz, as well as ongoing sales from artists like Norah Jones and Utada Hikaru. He noted Joss Stone's Soul Sessions and Keith Urban's Golden Road have each surpassed two million units in worldwide sales and Yellowcard's Ocean Avenue has reached more than one million. The company also expects new releases in the second half of the year from Chemical Brothers, Chingy, Coldplay, Gorillaz, The Thrills and Robbie Williams, as well as Stone and Urban.

He was also pleased with EMI Music Publishing results. "We continue to enjoy strong chart positions, especially in the U.S., U.K, Germany and France, with releases from a range of songwriters, including Jamie Cullum, Kelis, Alicia Keys, Scissor Sisters, Usher and Mario Winans. We have finalized new synchronization licences with companies like American Express, Target and Jaguar. In April, we also completed our purchase of the final 20% stake in Jobete, the Motown song catalog.

"As we highlighted in May, given the phasing of both our recorded music release schedule and the savings from our restructuring program, we expect the second half to account for a higher proportion of sales and profits than it has in prior years. With this strong release schedule and the progress we are making in both of our businesses, we remain confident that we will achieve our financial targets for the full year."

Nicoli didn't address persistent rumors that EMI would hook up with a partner, most notably the Warner Music Group, in the wake of the EU's expected approval of the Sony-BMG merger on July 22, but has insisted in the past the company was more than willing to move forward independently.