PARIS, France (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy sees profitable days ahead for the record industry as they develop new ways to monetize legal digital downloading.
During a recent interview with the Financial Times, Lévy noted that he was "cheered" by a number of new ways to accrue money from the sale of music, including mobile phone maker Nokia's plans to charge for phones that come with unlimited download deals.
Lévy has also pointed to deals in the works with firms such as Apple and existing arrangements such as the one forged with social networking site MySpace.com last spring as ways that the label giant is working to replace their dwindling CD revenue.
The factors, Lévy maintains, have led to the 5 percent bump in first-half revenue making Universal "The next surprise for investors."
"I think [in] the music business, there is a strong likelihood that we are getting close to the lowest part of the cycle and we are extremely active in developing new business models, new sources of revenues." Lévy told the Financial Times "We are working with all the big names in the field of Internet, in the field of telecom equipment companies, big media companies and this is a big opportunity."
Lévy went on to express his views that Universal will soon be able to claim that it had "reinvented a new era for the music business." As to the veracity of Mr. Lévy's claims, only time will show the right. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
