Universal Music has much cause to celebrate this year- well, at least on a financial tip.
Enjoying a revenue boost of 9.1% since last year, the Group’s parent company Vivendi has attributed to its success to Pop god Madonna and Rap idol Nicki Minaj.
Find out why below…
Increasing by 9.1% to 9.61 million Euros ($1.28 billion at the March 31 exchange rate), Vivendi has credited the label’s success to strong release schedule. A schedule, which saw the release of Madonna’s ‘MDNA‘ on March 23rd and Minaj’s ‘Roman Reloaded‘ on April 3rd.
Thus far, despite failing to match her previous chart feats,’MDNA’ enjoys 5x Platinum status in Russia and a 2x Platinum feat in Brazil, debuting with a cool 359,000 units in the US.
Marking her second time atop the Billboard 200, sales of Nicki’s ‘Roman Reloaded’ have made her Universal’s fastest selling Rap act of 2012– so far.
Debuting in the US with an underwhelming 253,000 units (122,000 copies less than that of her debut LP ‘Pink Friday‘), ‘Reloaded’ sold over half a million copies world wide within its first month of release, set to reach the 1 million units moved mark by the first week of July.
This, one year after ‘Friday‘ wowed critics by outselling Rihanna‘s ‘Loud’ and Chris Brown‘s ‘FAME’ in the US, sans the benefit #1 single or subsequent world tour.