ARISTA TOPS $425 MILLION IN NINE MONTHS

Arista Records said Tuesday it finished the first nine months of its fiscal year with record sales of $425 million.

With an NBC television special on May 15 set to mark the 25th anniversary of the label, Arista said it expects to achieve record profits for the fiscal year ending June with sales exceeding $550 million.

Last year, Arista recorded $295 million for the nine months and $425 million for the full year.
The sales figures that Arista releases to the public have beenquestioned by indusryites for some time. Those figures have also been scrutinized by parent company BMG, sources said.

Arista, a unit of Bertelsmann AG, attributed the higher sales to veteran rock guitarist Carlos Santana, who made a clean sweep of the top Grammy categories in February.

Arista said that "Supernatural," the group's first number one album since 1971 has now shipped 16 million copies worldwide and achieved about $160 million in sales. The album is expected to achieve $250 million in worldwide revenue by the end of calendar year 2000, Arista said.

Also contributing to the label's success were Whitney Houston's "My Love Is Your Love" and TLC's "Fanmail."