We need to keep pace with change. (mw comment).

We kick off a new year of Music Week by gazing into our crystal ball and presenting a very special magazine--the Future Issue.

Never, perhaps, have there been so many questions about the future of the music industry as there are today. New technology, a rapidly changing high street, developing consumer tastes and needs, a remodelled broadcast landscape and fundamentally shifting economics--they all pose their own challenges.

Talking to executives in the final weeks of last year for some of the features which appear on the following five pages, the lack of vision in some quarters was a little disconcerting. This should not, perhaps, be particularly surprising though.

It is, after all, an uncertain time. And where there is uncertainty, there is always likely to be nervousness. But it needn't be like that.

In our discussions with industry figures, perhaps the clearest messages were very simple: that there needs to be more focus on music; and where there is music there will be a business.

Sure, in 12 months, or two years, or five years' time, the entire business of music may well have changed beyond recognition. But, so long as the music is compelling, there will still be commerce at its heart.

With music use on the rise, whether ...