Top stars help boost sales at Universal Music Ireland

Sales of music by U2, Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Hozier helped the Irish arm of music giant, Universal to increase revenues and return to operating profit last year.

Figures lodged by Universal Music Ireland Ltd with the Companies Office show t the firm recorded an operating profit last year of €1.6m. That was hard on the heels of the operating loss of €636,304 recorded in 2014.

The business recorded the return to profit after revenues increased by 6% to €13.2m in 2015. According to the directors’ report, even though revenue increased “the company continued to experience difficult trading conditions as a consequence of the ongoing recovery from economic recession and illegal downloading”.