Dawn of a new Era as Bard changes its name.

The organisation formally known as Bard has reiterated its support for independent retailers, despite changing its name to better reflect its widened remit of covering all entertainment retailers.

The organisation, which formed in 1988 as the British Association of Record Dealers to initiate dialogue between music retailers, record companies and the BPI, announced last week that it would now be known as the Entertainment Retailers Association (Era).

Deputy chairman Paul Quirk said the move demonstrates the organisation's commitment to its increasingly diverse membership, including the film and games retail sectors. However, he promised that the organisation would not change its priorities, despite new figures showing that the number of specialist independent music retailers in the UK has fallen again to 694 in 2005, compared to 774 in 2004 and 1,293 in 1993.

"Even record companies have now changed to entertainment companies," he says. "The Era council doesn't change, nothing changes that we talk about, it is just a name change to represent what we represent. We are still representing record shops.

"For quite a few years we have had games and videos and DVD members on the council," he adds. "That is what we ...