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The massive success of the digitally remastered Beatles albums which were released last month sent music publisher Chrysalis scurrying to tell analysts to upgrade their numbers this year.
Chrysalis — expected to return to the black this year — owns Beatles' producer George Martin's master rights to several of the albums including Rubber Sole and Abbey Road. That means they collect what a spokesman described as a “modest percentage” on every new album sold. Reissued by EMI, the remastered Beatles albums sold more than 2.25 million copies around the world within days.
Chrysalis has also had an unexpected boost to its revenues from the death of Michael Jackson.
It owns rights to several of his best-known songs including Thriller and Off The Wall which were written by Rod Temperton. Among more contemporary artists Chrysalis has had recent chart hits from The Gossip, Bat for Lashes and The Horrors following on from first-half hits by White Lies, The Fleet Foxes and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Chrysalis said profits for the year to end-September would be “slightly ahead of the board's expectations”.
The group added that it has continued to focus on cutting costs and overheads and said it has an unused debt facility of £37.4 million.
It said it is still on the look out for acquisitions to add further artists and writers to its music catalogue.
