What Next for Music Retail? A Music Ally Event hosted by Deloitte

Monday 14th July 2008, 6pm to 9pm, Deloitte Auditorium, 1st Floor, 2 New Street Square, London, EC4A 3TR.

It has been quite some time since Music Ally's last event; so we're pleased to announce the next evening of networking, food and drink in central London with a discussion focussing on the outlook for retail.

We know the credit crunch has hit; and that forecasts for the retail sector are looking increasingly grim. But the situation is compounded for music where retail sales have been falling anyway for the last eight years in a row. With over 800 music retailers closed in the US and with Woolworths pulling music from its shelves in the UK it's time to seriously take stock of the music retail situation and ask where do we go next?

Despite iTunes' success, digital is still failing to make up for the shortfall from the drop in physical sales. On the other hand perhaps retail is changing into something altogether more sexy? We've got new subscription models coming through, free streaming services with money made from advertising and the reinvention of radio online.  So is it all about free ad-funded services now? Do we need to lower the price of music to compete with free? Is there a sustainable business for anyone other than iTunes in a la carte downloads business? Should we be trying to make money from music fans' relationship with music in other ways? Perhaps iTunes won't save the music business but it's possible that one of our panellists will. To bring the discussion into focus Music Ally has polled top executives from across the music retail business to ask them where they see growth coming from and how they believe the retail sector can recover over the coming years.

Confirmed panelists:

• Rob Lewis, CEO, Omnifone
• Gideon Lask, Director, E-Commerce, HMV
• Keith Jopling, EMI
• Derek Dunlop, Digital Media Strategist, Conchango
• James Bates, Media Director, Deloitte

Chair and introduction:

• Paul Brindley, MD, Music Ally