The sales of videos, games software and music fell during the recession last year, according to the Entertainment Retailers’ Association (ERA) in the UK. Despite this announcement, the sales of music only dropped by 0.8%, this being the lowest fall for five years. Video and games software suffered from bigger loses, falling from 10.6% and 11% respectively. The members of ERA account for more than 90% of video, games and music sales in the UK. Members of ERA include Tesco, HMV, Amazon and hundreds more independent retailers.

An Era director has stated, “It’s too early to say whether this is the music market bottoming out. Obviously everybody’s still in the middle of a recession but I think it’s certainly showing that consumers still love music so, hopefully, it’s a positive note in an otherwise grey climate”. The music sales achieved a better rate than anticipated, especially after the collapse of numerous music retailers including Zavvi and Woolworths. The figures also showed that the average price being paid for a CD album dropped below £8 for the first time. Another figure released was that there were just 269 independent record shops remaining in the UK. The amount of independent stores has undoubtedly been impacted upon by the growth of internet downloads and also the increase in online music streaming. It is anticipated that music sales may now decline in the next few years, especially due to the number of downloader’s increasing.