Bard meets with ELSPA

Bard, the British Association of Record Dealers, meets with ELSPA this week to thrash out industry issues like the breaking of release dates.

Although most retailers have kept the release dates for the recent crop of big releases, both industry bodies want to make sure this continues on a more formal basis.

ELSPA's vice chairman Paul Jackson, whose day job is Electronic Arts European sales manager, said: "It seems to be going quite well at the moment, but how do we keep it going."

Bard formed a multimedia committee in May 1996 to specifically address entertainment software issues for its members. It had an initial meeting then with ELSPA to draw up a schedule of points to address. The second meeting will also cover product tagging, packaging and bar coding. ELSPA wants to make sure Bard members understand why they should only take product bearing voluntary age ratings so they aren't caught selling illegal software.

Members of Bard's multimedia committee include HMV, Woolworths, Tower Records, Virgin, Now, WH Smith and Entertainment UK.