As you all know by now, the massive entertainment retail chain, Zavvi have gone into administration (here’s why).

I read a very good post over on PopJustice the other day, and wanted to share it with you, because it raises some interesting questions about the future of music, certainly in the UK:

You can complain about Zavvi as much as you like – and we have done – but its disappearance from high streets is terrible for music. With Woolworths also going, it means that supermarkets will overnight become even more powerful not just at dictating what music people buy but also – this is the important bit – which artists record labels sign and what music they produce.

Certainly a nightmare scenario, but the PopJustice gang believe that there will be a veritable famine of creativity and diversity:

you are in for a difficult few years as major label A&R departments aim for the lowest, blandest, risk-freeiest common denominator options, and a generation of future music fans grows up listening to the results.

Funnily enough, I had a bizarre music-buying experience before Christmas: I drove over to a nearby shopping town looking for some chart CDs for presents.

Trying to find a record shop in the first place was difficult. I tried a couple of department stores, but their stock was woeful. They didn’t even have a chart section. So, after a couple of hours dragging my son around the shops, I eventually tracked down a HMV which had everything I needed.

However, the point is that there aren’t many places left on the high street to buy music. If you’re relying on Tesco to pick up a vintage album, or to discover the back catalogue of your favourite band, think again.

So, the choices are: succumb to the mass market and what the industry tells you to but or start fully sourcing your music online.

It sounds bleak, but are things really that bad, or were they heading this way anyway?