Supermarkets tighten grip on charts.

The ability of supermarket giants to sell albums at cut prices threatens the whole industry

Richard Branson's verbal assault on supermarkets - and the record labels who he believes have allowed them to take over the retail business - could be dismissed as promotional opportunism.

Indeed, the fact he made his comments in the week that Virgin Megastores returned to retail in central Manchester - after seven years away - is no coincidence. But that doesn't undermine the thrust of his argument.

Supermarkets have helped music companies reach a section of the consumer market that music chains and independents are much less effective at reaching; the casual consumers who simply would not make a special trip to a specialist record shop. But that power comes with a sting in its tail.

Branson is dead right. Retailers who are trying to run businesses by selling music simply cannot compete against companies which are selling at a loss, in a bid to generate footfall.

Whether he is right to blame music companies is something else entirely. No record label can stop a retailer from selling at a loss; they can only set the price at which they sell product to the retailer, not the ...