JUMPSTART GETTING A NEW START?

That’s the question retail askers are asking as UMVD honcho Jim Urie conducts meetings with all of his distributed labels about JumpSTART the sequel..

The topic of discussion is the controversial JumpSTART pricing program that Urie rolled out last September. Although he continues to insist there will be no wholesale changes in the program, mongers keep mongering that there will indeed be some tweaking of the system in the near-future.

How deep the changes will be is anyone’s guess, but most of the chatterers on the street find it hard to believe that there won’t be some mechanism introduced that will help UMG labels "incentivize" retailers to focus on their priority acts, whether they be developing artists or frontline superstars.

The meetings come on the heels of some good news for the program, with Virgin Entertainment Group ending its four-month holdout and agreeing to participate in the program. No company had dug in its heels harder than Virgin, having cut off all business dealings with UMVD over the issue. VEG’s agreement to play is seen by many as a major victory for Urie’s program that has had more than its share of critics.