HMV's response to the death of CDs? Let's sell headphones!

[Drico One]

The tax issue is a very fair point in general, but HMV weren't paying any tax as they were making losses. HMV went down the tubes, in my view, because they failed to adapt (they were in pole position to corner the online market with the power of brand name recognition 15 years ago and blew it) and continued to rip people off for as long as they thought they could get away with it (€25 for a CD!). They've always been massively expensive and they've failed to stock anything like an up-to-date or extensive choice for many years now in spite of the virtual competition.

If they refuse to stock CD singles, for example, then it's no surprise that my most recent purchase of same came via Amazon Germany.

I always prefer buying records in shops - the immediacy is a huge advantage, especially with must-have releases - but if they won't sell me what I want, they can hardly complain if I go elsewhere. HMV haven't stocked a PSB single for years, for example, so they lost that business without even competing for it. It all adds up. In the past, I often used my thrice-yearly PSB single hunt in HMV to buy a plethora of other records on the same visits. Without the single to get me into the shop, they lost album sales from me while I was there. They preferred to sell Beats by Dre and other non-audio products whilst marginalising the minority who actually wanted to buy physical product from them. That was their call.

Of course, none of this would have mattered had they taken advantage of their brand recognition and set up a serious online operation back in the day - but they saw the Internet as the enemy rather than a tool that could have helped them stave off the competition. That's what really killed them, but forgive me if I no longer lament the record shop that I loved. It was already closed to the likes of me as soon as it gave up on the single.

Drico.

[Jamesqdot]

Was reading this article again earlier, written by John Twells who runs a small but popular independent label called Type.

Reminds me of the excitement of my record purchasing youth. You simply couldn't do this in an HMV now.

[Your Funny Uncle]

Meh. HMV and the like drove the independent stores that I truly loved out of business and now they've been out-competed by someone just as unscrupulous as them but with more savvy in the modern marketplace. Unless or until the world we live in changes radically, this is what you can expect...

[raggatwin]

mmmn, that's true. HMV died years ago as far as i'm concerned.

[FormerEnfantTerrible]

I'm sad it is my generation that is killing the CD. They'll never know the pleasure of really experiencing music with a booklet and a case. Now all they talk about is iTunes. 'Ohh, did you download iTunes?' 'How much did that song cost?'. REALLY. If I'm downloading music, I'd rather do it illegally...

[Dipso]

I am nostalgically sad about the demise of HMV, but I admit I haven't been in a branch for a few months. When you're buying online with Amazon et al, you can be fairly sure that the product is in stock and reasonably priced. I dread to think how much time I used to spend scouring HMV on Monday mornings for PSB releases that just weren't there, only to return home empty-handed and fed up.

Does anyone know if HMV has gone bust internationally or just in the UK? I live in Hong Kong now and there are quite a lot of HMV branches here. They're really great for English-language books and magazines, rather perversely.

Also, HMV owns Fopp, right? I know there aren't many branches of Fopp as it has already gone bust once! I hope it can find a buyer.

[Undertaker]

HMV were selling Fundamental for £22 just before Christmas. What moron will pay that?

[daveid]

There has been a number of interesting articles about the demise of HMV, but here's the best; an insider's view on where they went wrong, plus a funny anecdote about Bob Geldof and Michael Hutchence:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... NTCMP=SRCH

[ZiggyPSB]

I wouldn't have thought HMV were in trouble last November. After a Keane concert in Belfast, whilst wandering around to kill time before the last train, I stumbled across an HMV Pop-Up store in Victoria Square. First time I seen a little store that just sells chart or sale items of CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays and games rather than have expansive specialist sections like the flagship stores do. Was in town today and it has shut up shop. I know its a smaller best-of branch but hell that didn't last long.

HMV Pop-Up popped up and went away as quickly as an internet pop-up.

[tottenhammattspurs]

If they embraced and competed in the download market from about 1998 onwards, they could have had a itunes rivalling download prescence. Make the large HMV stores "meeting places" by putting coffee shops/cafes in them. You are in the cafe, hanging out with mates and the music you hear over the speakers can be physically bought IN THAT VERY STORE or, even better, direct to a USB stick from an IN STORE ONLINE PODS. WHen bands do exclusive promo gigs at the stores (i.e Oxford St), the live gig is then available to exclusively download from the HMV website IN STORE ONLY, therefore making the shops places to meet and subsequently browse, offerimg exclusive downloadable purchasable content unavailable anywhere else. Bands/record companies would realise this and make content exclusively for the HMV website.
Instead they ignored and virtually laughed off the internet competition, still selling CDs at vastly inflated prices, spvnked profits up the wall from the 90s onwards, then when they panicked and had to diverse in stock, started selling electrical stuff that you could already buy for cheaper elsewhere. If Dixons went t1ts up selling electrical, why did HMV think they'd be successful?


But to be honest, f*** them. They've taken the p1ss on prices for years, don't stock anything remotely outside of greatest hits compilations and have forced the closure of so many independent record shops over the years that this announcement is almost a happy ending.

[ZiggyPSB]

But to be honest, f*** them. They've taken the p1ss on prices for years, don't stock anything remotely outside of greatest hits compilations and have forced the closure of so many independent record shops over the years that this announcement is almost a happy ending.

That's a weird thought. How did independent records fail to HMV when HMV was failing to the internet? The internet has thrashed the lot of them, independent shops, high-street shops and all.

I don't believe independent record stores will have an easy time after HMV shuts up shop for good. There will still be supermarkets and the internet that killed off HMV.

[Bruno Republic]

Does anyone know if HMV has gone bust internationally or just in the UK? I live in Hong Kong now and there are quite a lot of HMV branches here. They're really great for English-language books and magazines, rather perversely.

The Canadian arm, which was sold off a couple of years ago for a pitifully low sum, is still going. Having said that, the stores barely carry any music at all. Seems many of their locations have shrunk or moved to smaller spaces over the past few years. The flagship Toronto store is now down to about half the size it was at its peak.

[Patrick Bateman]

I didn't realise that the online arm has actually suspended trading owing to administration. It can't be long before the physical stores go the same way unfortunately.

[Drico One]

The stores in Ireland are shut. There are two workers' sit-ins in the Limerick outlets. They've been left without even the wages they worked up over the last month or so.

You're only a number

[raggatwin]

Broken Ireland.....