MP3 FORMAT DRIVES SALES

The Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) says the adoption of the open MP3 format by record companies will re-ignite download sales in the UK after the recent slowdown in growth in 2007.

ERA has welcomed the announcement by Sony-BMG it is to join the other three major record companies and thousands of independent labels in making music available in the "open" MP3 format which is guaranteed to play on every player. ERA has lobbied record companies for months to adopt the MP3 standard, arguing that proprietary digital rights management (DRM) systems have been a brake on legal download sales.

UK download sales doubled from 26.4m in 2005 to 52.5m in 2006, but they grew by less than 50% to 77.5m in 2007, according to figures from the Official UK Charts Company. ERA says sales figures show that the availability of tracks in the open MP3 format drives sales.

Sony-BMG last week announced that it is to make up to 3.1m tracks available without DRM. ERA Director General Kim Bayley said, " Sony-BMG's decision to back MP3 is great news for music fans and the music market. DRM has clearly hampered the growth of the download market. The success of the compact disc was based on the fact that every CD played in every CD player. It has been clear that downloads could never reach their true potential until they were available on a universally-compatible open format. We welcome Sony-BMG's recognition of this fact."

UK music fans must not be left behind. But Bayley pointed out that so far only tracks from EMI and Universal and independent labels are currently available in the MP3 format in the UK. Sony-BMG's announcement that it is adopting MP3 currently only applies to the US market. She called on record companies to extend MP3 sales to UK music fans as quickly as possible.

"Now that the principle has been established that MP3 is the way forward, it is vital that UK music fans do not get left behind," she said. "We are on the verge of a great boom in download sales, but this can only happen if the music is available."

The Entertainment Retailers Association is the voice of UK retailers and wholesalers of recorded music, video, DVD and games. ERA members accounted for approximately 90% of sales of UK packaged entertainment in 2006.