EMI Digital Non-Strategy Might be Working?

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Last May, we wrote about EMI Music's appointment of former Google CIO Douglas Merrill as head of digital strategy. Then in March of this year, Merrill moved on with a claim from EMI that digital was becoming central to all of their operations, rather than it's own stand alone department.

Now, the numbers coming out of EMI's year of digital confusion seem to indicate that profits are up significantly (£163 million over 2008's £51 million) and digital is to thank. The numbers show that while physical sales were down 10%, digital sales have moved in to represent 35% of the company's income, up from 20% last year.

Their digital activity in the last year has included a number of quirky licensing deals including a deal with The Fairmont Hotel chain, music-themed scratch-off lottery games, and a music Visa card.

In fact, the real secret to increased profits at EMI may well be the strong British Pound (against the US dollar) and internal cost cutting (such as letting go their head of digital strategy?).

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