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END OF RECORD STORES Feb 11 2003

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/page.cfm?objectid=12627032&method=full&siteid=89488

UK music sales are in freefall, with a 3.7 per cent slump in CD album and single sales. Will the internet finally kill off music shops?

John Dingwall



THE music industry is facing its biggest slump in record sales for more than 10 years as fans turn their back on high street stores.

More and more music lovers are downloading their tunes from the internet.

Others have simply become fed-up with the excess of manufactured pop that dominates the charts.

Back in the 1980s, major labels launched a campaign against bootleg cassettes warning "Home Taping Is Killing Music".

It didn't. But the same labels fear the internet could finally lead to their downfall.

Millions around the world are now able to find music for free on the net and "burn" the downloaded tracks on to a CD.

Nobuyuk Idei, chairman of media giants Sony, claimed: "If we don't find a way of making the internet pay for us, the music industry will be dead within 10 years."

Experts believe the internet has contributed in part to UK sales falling to their lowest level since 1992.

Record shops are already feeling the pinch. Tower Records shut their huge Glasgow store last year, claiming there was too much competition in the city.

That competition doesn't always come from other record shops.

Last month, easyJet owner Stelios Haji-Ioannou was found guilty of internet piracy after allowing customers to copy music on to CDs at his chain of cafes.

He let customers download music and "burn" their own CDs at his easyInternetcafes across Europe.

And he accused the industry of "extortion" by overcharging for CDs, predicting the music retail business would collapse.

News of the slump in CD and record sales comes just weeks after Robbie Williams, the biggest-selling artist in the UK, called on fans to download music illegally.

He was attacked by Culture Minister Kim Howells, who controversially claimed that music piracy supports drug and prostitution rackets.

Other stars fear the worst for the industry.

In an exclusive interview with The Record, Destiny's Child beauty Kelly Rowland admitted: "I'll never sell records like Destiny's Child have done in the past. I know this.

"It's because kids are downloading music. They are going to make artists feel like they shouldn't make records any more.

"What's the point when they are just downloading it?"

For several years, the UK market bucked the global downturn in music sales. The high point came in 2001 as sales exceeded £1.2billion. A five- year slump in single sales was more than compensated by the growth in album sales. By last year, even album sales were feeling the pinch as the market fell 3.7 per cent.

Single sales fell nearly 12 per cent, despite the success of acts such as Will Young, who shifted 1.1million copies of his debut Evergreen in just a week.

A spokesman for industry regulators the BPI said: "Factors adversely affecting the market included intense competition from other areas of the entertainment sector, such as computer games and DVDs."

But many blame the rise of the manufactured pop act for the decline. Singles fly into the charts and then plummet straight out, with no long-term sales.

Bucking the trend are Coldplay who are enjoying massive sales worldwide.

The band's Scots bassist Guy Berryman said: "The televised stuff like Popstars and Pop Idol is utter rubbish and I feel sick when I see it.

"People are simply getting fed-up with the manufactured stuff."