The BBC's popular written Album Reviews will be scrapped from the end of this month due to budget cuts.
The critical corner of the BBC's online music coverage, passing judgement on the latest LPs in various genres each week, the reviews were edited by respected journalist Mike Diver.
He will leave his position at at UBC Media, which won the tender to provide the BBC Album Reviews in summer 2009, when the current contract period ends on April 1.
A former DrownedInSound editor and Clash magazine online editor, Diver's recent contributions to the site were backed by a team of freelance writers, including Jude Clarke, Daniel Spicer, Laura Barton, Tom Hocknell, Colin Irwin and Fraser McAlpine.
"Unfortunately, budget cuts within BBC Audio and Music mean that there can be no reviews service from the end of this month," Diver told Music Week.
"These budgets are, naturally, reviewed regularly; and this time the decision was made to cut the reviews service entirely.
"All writers, save myself, were freelancers. Losing the BBC album reviews is, after the closure of The Stool Pigeon, another disappointing chapter in an ongoing saga of dwindling opportunities for music critics.
"The landscape is changing, not for the better."
BBC Album Reviews write-ups were often re-posted by Amazon.co.uk in its descriptions of recorded music.
The restructuring of the BBC's Audio & Music division was cited as a cornerstone of the strategy of director general George Entwistle when he took the job in September last year.
However, Entwistle was to resign just 54 days after his first day in the role following controversy over a Newsnight report.
The BBC is aiming to make savings of £700m a year by 2016/2017 as part of its budget plan, dubbed Delivering Quality First.
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