ERA launch indie record store website & vote

The Entertainment Retailers Association is launching a search for independent record stores in the UK, because there's a rumour going round that one still exists somewhere. No, not really, the trade body is mounting a search for the *best* indie record store in the country, as part of a campaign to promote how lovely and brilliant and important independent music shops are.

ERA has set up a new website to promote indie stores and in-store events happening in them. I'm not sure whether it will also have a section detailing how ERA's bigger members have screwed the indie sector by employing a dodgy VAT loophole that lets them sell CDs dirt cheap via their mail-order operations by locating said operations in Jersey and avoiding having to pay tax, something independent players could never afford to do. But I do know that the aforementioned 'vote for your favourite record shop' poll is on there, with everyone who votes by a week on Thursday getting entered into a competition to win tickets to the BRIT Awards.

ERA Director General Kim Bayley told CMU: "It is no secret that independents have had a tough time over the past years. The launch of http://www.indierecordshop.org and this search for Britain's Best Indie will, we think, help focus attention on the grassroots of music retailing where new artists are nurtured".

The new site is at www.indierecordshop.org