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Indie labels hurt by warehouse fire

London - Customers have been urged to buy digital copies of albums after UK riot fires destroyed indie label stockpiles at a music warehouse in the Enfield neighbourhood of London.

The fire, caused by the ongoing rioting in that city, destroyed the Sony/PIAS warehouse, which stored CDs, DVDs and vinyl units mainly owned by smaller independent labels.

The loss will mainly affect supply to the UK and Ireland markets, but certain specialist indie releases and vinyl pressings may be in short supply as far afield as South Africa as well.

According to Pitchfork, Martin Mills of Beggars Group estimated that it could take at least  three months to replace their vinyl stock. Earlier, the label said via a blog post that "Our UK distributor, Sony dadc was burnt down in last night’s riots, so all our UK stock is gone."

Arctic Monkeys' label Domino issued a statement after it was revealed that the imminent release of the band's new single would be affected: "Domino has lost a large quantity of its CD and vinyl stock in the Sony DADC fire, which took place last night. While relieved that no-one was injured in the incident, we're upset about the loss and destruction of our stock, and thinking of our friends at other independent labels who were also affected by the fire. We are currently working hard with Sony DADC to maintain our release schedule and keep business going as usual."

The Association of Independent Music UK  on Tuesday had officially encouraged fans to buy digital copies of all records to help the labels out of a potentially business-threatening situation.

"It WILL help enormously if this week," they said, "any records you were planning on buying, from the independent labels affected by the fire and destruction of their stock, you go online and make your purchases there. It will bring in some desperately needed funds to help those companies re-manufacture the destroyed stock.(sic)"
 
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