MIDEM 2009: Delivering change.

With the demise of EUK and Pinnacle, distributors are picking up the pieces. Music Week looks at how a leaner distribution business is strengthening its arm by minimising risks and offering more services

By Christopher Barrett

It is an intriguing coincidence that Pinnacle should fall into administration in the same week last month that The Mail On Sunday launched a record label. For what The Mail On Sunday undoubtedly excels in - for all its infamy within the music industry - is distribution: getting 2m-odd newspapers, often including CDs, into shops across the UK first thing Sunday morning, no questions asked.

It would be ridiculous to suggest that the UK record industry could overcome its woes by hitching a lift with The Mail On Sunday en masse. But with the collapse of EUK followed by fellow distributor Pinnacle, many in the business are wondering what on earth can be done to fulfil the vital job of getting the music to the people.

The most popular answer - at least among the UK media - would appear to involve abandoning the ailing CD and going 100% digital: the end of the year saw a number of articles in the British papers loudly proclaiming the death of the CD, in view of the problems of EUK, Woolworths, Pinnacle and Zavvi.

There is just one hitch: CDs, if not exactly performing stronger than ever, still have a considerable lease of life. Take That's The Circus, for example, sold more than 420,000 CDs in the week of Pinnacle's collapse, despite not being stocked in its Woolworths' stronghold.

As Midem approaches, then, and the distribution community heads to the cold seafront of a wintery Cannes, what does the future hold for those oft-overlooked heroes of the industry who make sure that the UK shops stay stocked with recorded music?