Mariah to Release Two Albums in 2007

Universal Music Group Chief Executive Doug Morris said on Tuesday the world's largest music company will post its best ever revenue and profit in 2007 thanks to new releases from its top-selling artists.

Morris said Universal and other music companies are also starting to see new revenue streams from digital sources, including Apple's iTunes online music service and iPod digital media player, and mobile phone ringtones.

"I think that next year we're going to have our best year," he said at the Reuters Media Summit in New York. "I think our revenues and our profits will be the best we've ever had."

Morris said Universal Music, owned by French media giant Vivendi (VIV.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), will benefit hugely from new albums from Eminem, 50 Cent and two albums from Mariah Carey.

"You can see there are myriad streams of income starting to come into the record companies," said Morris. "We're going to make money from MySpace, we're going to make money from YouTube, we're going to make money from Zune...we will make tremendous amount of money from telephones."

Source: Reuters