Although Blue-Rays only had their 5th Birthday today the actual technology is more than 10 years old. After the new discs hit the shops it still took a few more years for consumers to start buying them.

Once Blu-Ray discs were introduced we were able to view movies in 1080p which is still the highest quality available. However Blue-Ray may still have a hard time surviving in a world dominated by streaming and digital downloads which is where Ultraviolet will come in.

Ultraviolet is set to launch this year and is backed by many different companies including Samsung, Sky, Lovefilm, Netflix, Dell and HP. The way it will work is that when you buy a Blue-Ray disc or any other format you will be able to access that content from a multiple devices in digital format. The companies are in no way trying to eliminate hard copies they will simply be giving you another option to watch the digital copy wherever you go.

Ultraviolet is still in it’s testing phase and will be beta testing later in 2011.

Blu-Ray’s have not completely phased out DVDs just yet and with only 15% of the market it may be some time before they do.

In other news Nintendo have recently stated that the newly announced Wii U will not allow users to play DVDs or Blu-Rays, they say the reason for this is that there are already enough devices available with these capabilities.

The first week sales were so high due to Amazon offering the album online for one day for just $0.99 which is the first time this has been done.

Amazon has major technical problems on the first day it was offered at the low price due to overwhelming demand so had to offer it again at $0.99 three days later. As well as offering the album Amazon also gave whoever bought it 20GB of cloud storage.

By selling over 1.1 million copies the Lady Gaga album became just the 17th to do this in a week since 1991.

Of the total digital copies that were sold Amazon sold 442,00 and other online stores sold 222,000. CDs of Born this Way that were sold in the week accounted for just over 450,000 copies.

Online store Amazon actually ended up loosing money on the deal as they still had to pay Universal Music Group the full wholesale price for each copy, although they did use the promotion to get extra users for their cloud service.

In the second week Lady Gaga’s album only sold 174,000 copies which was is down 85% from the previous week. The 174,000 copies did however keep it at the top of the US charts.

By focusing less on CD sales many independent retailers in the UK and around the world are finding that vinyl is much more consistent. Many independent music shops have found that in the last few years they have gone from selling 50-50 on compact discs and vinyl to more like 90-10. It’s mainly the underground and DJ circuit that are keeping vinyl alive and collectors who see them as valuable souvenirs.

Many shop owners say that owning vinyl helps create a psychical connection with the music rather than just zeros and ones in the digital format.

Big retailers are unlikely to buy vinyl as it can’t be returned if it doesn’t get sold. Many small retailers will be happy to take that risk.

Vinyl still only counts for 1.2% of physical sales but are becoming much more popular than in 2006 when only 1 million were sold, this year it’s expected that 3.6 million will be sold around the world. The recent increase is due to a lot of older bands re-releasing old albums on vinyl records or releasing new music exclusively on record. The same cannot be said about compact discs where sales are dropping by as much as 21%.

The top selling vinyl records in 2010 included The Suburbs by Arcade Fire, The Final Frontier by Iron Maiden, The Rolling Stones Exile on Main Street and the most sold was Jimi Hendrix’s Valleys of Neptune.

Music Magpie are now offering a free fully insured courier service as well as their normal freepost address. To qualify for the free courier service simply dig out and send in 50 or more items, just choose a date that suits you and their courier will pick them all up free of charge. By using the free courier service your items will be much more secure and you will get your money faster. Why not collect old CDs from your local club, friends, family, school or anywhere else you can think of and send them all in at once to get the free courier.

To get your cash on the Music Magpie site simply type in the barcode and you will be quoted a price, if you are happy with the price then sending in your items using the free post address or if there’s more than 50 individual items then arrange a free courier. Once received your old CDs, DVDs or video games will be tested and your cash will be sent via cheque within 2 days.

To make it even easier the CD trade in company has recently launched a program that can be downloaded which turns your webcam into a barcode scanner. All you have to do then is scan each CD, Game or DVD to get an instant price.

Recycle your unwanted CDs, DVDs and Games for cash at Music Magpie here

The retailer says that 95% of their used transactions are linked to the sale of a new product, without pre-owned games HMV think there would be fewer new titles.

RePlay Manager at HMV, Martin Baxter said “I am shocked no one has done a trade in app before.“He added “I think there is a stigma attached to people revealing trade-in prices. Customers want to know what they’ll get for their old games. There is still a bit of nervousness attached with trading-in games. People don’t want to get embarrassed in finding out their old game is only worth 50p.”

1. Every year 2500 tonnes of CDs and DVDs are thrown in the bin, the majority of these will end up at landfill.
2. Every year over 130 million music CDs are sold but this figure is declining as many people move to digital music.
3. When someone buys a new music CD they only ever play it on average 8 times.
4. Most scratched CDs and DVDs can be repaired.
5. If a CD or DVD is to scratched to be re-used it is all pretty much 100% recyclable.
6. If every old CD in the UK was sent in for recycling they would be worth an estimated £21 million.
7. 5.5 million CDs, DVDs and software boxes are thrown in the bin every year.
8. Many processes used to make a DVD contribute to global warming.
9. Once at landfill an old CD or DVD can remain in its created state for centuries.
10. For each CD that is made 1KG of carbon dioxide is emitted into the environment.

Do your bit for the environment and sell your old CDs and DVDs for cash at Music magpie here

Allan Leighton joined the board after LDC a private equity firm invested around £10 million in Music Magpie in order to take a minority shareholding in the used entertainment retailer that now employs over 500 people.

Music Magpie currently turns unwanted CDs, DVDs and computer games into cash and is currently owned by Magpie Entertainment who are located in Macclesfield, Cheshire.

The new funding will allow the company to grow brand awareness across Central European countries and increase sales capabilities abroad.

Sell your old CDs, DVDs and video games at Music Magpie here

The big music groups including Sony, Universal, Warner Music and EMI are considering letting HMV take CDs on a sale or return basis instead of upfront payments to keep their shelves fully stocked.

By changing to sale or return this could help HMV save £15 million which could be used to pay of some of their £130 million debt.

HMV who employ 13,000 staff in the UK is rumoured to be in talks with billionaire businessman and shareholder Alexander Mamut to also sell their Waterstone’s book chain.

By visiting the TradeYourGames site and logging in its possible to quickly and easily search for the game you want to sell and be given an instant online quote. Alternatively you can use their ‘sellwizard’ which allows you to type in the barcodes and find out how much all your old games are worth in cash.

Once you have an instant online quote for your old console games it will make it easy to decide whether you want to trade it in online or take it to a computer game shop on the high street.

Trade in or sell your old video games for cash at TradeYourGames here

The government has delayed plans to completely close the VAT loophole that allows big companies like Amazon and Play to import cheap CDs and DVDs from the Channel Islands.

Some thought the VAT loophole would be closed altogether but the chancellor, George Osbourne has only announced a reduction in the Low Value Consignment Relief threshold from £18 to £15 from November this year. This decision could add up to £3.20 extra on a DVD box set. However this will not affect the price of CDs and DVDs, Internet retailers suck as Amazon and Play will continue to ship items under £18 from the Channel Islands.

Its estimated that the treasury will earn an extra £5 million per year from the new rules.

Have you got old CDs or DVDs? Recycle them for cash at Music Magpie here