Music piracy ‘great’, says Robbie is a curious story, but the most curious part (for me) was: EMI is reported to believe it will only make a profit once 18 million copies have been sold. (refering to Robbie’s new album, which has sold 5 million so far).

Now, suspending disbelief for a moment, let’s accept that the record company really does only make a couple of quid per CD. According to Courtney Love, in her nice breakdown of record company accounting, a typical cost for a band to record an album would be $500,000. Robbie’s album apparently cost 36 Million Pounds to make and market, according to EMI.