UK Music Industry in Trouble?

In these economically uncertain times, you may be losing count of which companies are going into administration (or bust!). Last week saw major UK retailer Woolies call in the administrators, this shook the music industry badly, as Woolies own one of the biggest distributors of music EUK. Stories of panic by record companies going direct to retailers such as Asda to make sure they get their latest releases to the public in the run up to xmas.

Also hitting the music industry at the other end was the news that the major independent music distributor Pinnacle has also called in the administrators. This has effected huge numbers of artists on hundreds of record labels, many of which would have been releasing material for the christmas market, now they are left without a distribution channel to get their products to retailers.

So, getting that much sought CD this xmas may be a little more difficult in some cases. With disruption in the distribution and major record companies fighting for shelfspace in asda the future of music sales as a physical product could well be shortened. With more and more choice in Digital Downloads and the price of these often being so much less than the actual CD, more people will opt for downloading.

The weak link in the chain of getting music from the artist to the consumer is showing to be the distribution network. Music is being made, and music is being demanded, yet if the product can't get to the consumer the business is in real trouble.

Enter Amazon UK MP3
Amazon seemed to have timed their entry into the MP3 download business at just the right time to make the most of this. With many of top selling albums such as The Kings of Leon's new release - Only By The Night being discounted to £3 for the MP3, when compared to almost £9 for the CD.
Amazon are a very forward thinking company and are always keen to grab new opportunities, so I can say that in 2009, they are likely to be working with independent artists in much the same way that iTunes do. Providing music on demand with the newest and oldest acts in music will surely be another thorn in the side of major record labels and independents as profits are squeezed even further. Amazon mp3's are also not copy protected like those provided by iTunes, meaning you can easily transfer to other mp3 devices you own.
So, maybe great news for the consumer of digital downloads this christmas but it could be quite a bleak christmas for the record companies and the musicians getting smaller fees. Only time will tell how this will effect the British music industry over the next year.

A Wind Up MP3 Player! Reviewed

Trevor Baylis launched the wind-up radio to great acclaim over a decade ago. This years launch of his wind-up Media Player has been a little more subdued, but heaven knows why as this gadget is wonderful in so many ways! It includes many additional features you would not find on any other MP3Player, such as a bright LED Torch, and a method of providing your mobile phone with an emergency charge.

Features -
1.8" colour screen.
video player
fm radio
led torch
phone charger -use the winder to power your phone!
photo viewer
ebook viewer
hi-fi recorder - Record Gigs!
memo recorder
data storage -Use it to carry and store your data files
dual power charge- USB or eco-windup

Critique
Well, the 1.8" screen isn't quite upto as high a standard as an iPod, but it is functional and still worth including. The card based memory may not suit all users, though as a flexible and easy way of transferring and carrying media it is very widely used, hard-drive based media players use a lot of their power just spinning the drive so this is obviously why they decided on a card based system. With SD-Cards available which hold 2gb widely available, you don't need many to rival the capacity of most MP3 Players.
The plus side of things obviously comes from being able to charge it up by winding wherever you happen to be. The additional features which include being able to use the winder to power up a mobile phone and including an led torch are just genius, also the FM radio is a great addition for people who wish to listen to the radio whilst on the move as well as their own library of music.
For a full review of this, including more pictures and specifications - The Wind Up MP3 Player

The Wind Up Media Player is available from All Things Green

Amazon DRM-Free MP3's

Amazon are set to take on iTunes and wipe the floor with their new MP3 store! With MP3's now available from 100's of thousands of artists, from major to small independent labels, amazon bring you millions of tunes ready for downloading easily to your iPod, smartphone, mp3 player and your hard-drive. Now that these tunes are available without DRM (Digital Rights Management) you can transfer the tunes to any number of your portable MP3 players, or even burn the tunes to your own CD's. This will definitely give amazon MP3's an edge over music downloaded from iTunes with their restrictions on which media player you can use aand what you can do with the tunes once downloaded.

Amazon are also promoting the new release of their MP3 downloads by making available a free tune each day! Checkout amazon mp3's here. All tunes are compatible with Windows Media Player, iTunes & any music management application or hardware.

Cost
Most songs are priced from 89 cents to 99 cents, with more than 1 million of the 2 million songs priced at 89 cents. The top 100 best-selling songs are 89 cents, unless marked otherwise. Most albums are priced from $5.99 to $9.99. The top 100 best-selling albums are $8.99 or less, unless marked otherwise.

Quality
Every song on Amazon MP3 is encoded at 256 kilobits per second, which gives customers high audio quality at a manageable file size.

Chart
Also available is an amazon download chart to see which are the most popular tunes & albums in dozens of categories!