www.musicweek.com FEATUREDISTRIBUTION
27.04.12 MusicWeek 33
The role of distribution companies has evolved into new and unforseen areas - but the industry itself is no less reliant on their long-standing expertise
TO A DIGITAL WORLD DELIVERING
SECTOR FOCUS BY TOM PAKINKIS
T
he modern music industry’s water-cooler topics don’t exactly paint a very distributor- friendly picture.
The CD is quickly giving way to the digital
format, which can be distributed with the tap of a button. Even while physical product is still dominant, a big slice of High Street custom could slip from distributors’ fingers very quickly should HMV fall, with indie retailers not colossal enough
to make up the difference. Wrap all that up in the chip paper of economic strife and you’d allow anyone in distribution a moment or two of self-pity. But actually talk to someone in the sector and
you’re likely to find a personality that’s more determined than anything else. Are today’s distributors cautious about the future, perhaps even a little nervous? Of course, but they also seem acutely aware of the situation in front of them and, more to the point, confident in their ability to roll with the punches and command their own fate. “The challenge across the industry is the decline
ABOVE From stock lines to online: while physical is still the larger part of most distribution companies’ business, digital delivery is something they can no longer ignore
in the physical market,” director of sales and distribution at PIAS Richard Sefton tells Music Week, reminding us that the toils of today’s music industry are indeed shared by every sector. “It isn’t as severe as some would have us believe,”
he adds, however. “Physical is still very much the larger part of our business, but clearly there is a move to the digital world. “The challenge is moving business across in such
a way that you don’t damage either side of it, so that digital and physical can sit side-by-side healthily and provide the labels we represent with that clean route to market.”
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