HMV in administration (again)

darthed1981

This time, might be the last, hidden in the articles is a year-on-year 30% drop in DVD sales, with current trading conditions and uncertainty things look very bad...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46699290

terada

Amazing, who'd have thought that a business selling cds and dvds wouldn't be a going concern 

terada

As always though, got to feel sorry for the staff.

bingefeller

The HMV in Belfast used to be great with their CD selection spread out over 2 floors.  Now they have a small selection on one floor.  It's a shame as I found the odd gem in there from time to time. 

darthed1981

terada said:

Amazing, who'd have thought that a business selling cds and dvds wouldn't be a going concern 

Thing is, last time, the music and film industries realised that if HMV left the high street then they would be almost totally at the mercy of Amazon for all their sales of physical media.  In the UK physical media is still a 2 billion business, so more than 4x the size of musical instrument retail, according to a quick google.

It is still a very big albeit declining market, there would be enough market there to be a sustainable business for a few years longer if the rest of the conditions currently affecting the high street were not so.

axisus

Too bad. Any town I go to I look for a record shop, and if there is one it is usually HMV. I still like to browse records and I usually buy stuff. After about 6 years without one my hometown got a new HMV, but 3 years in and it closed about 8 months ago. I used to drop in every Saturday.

Maybe I need to modernise and stop buying CDs ....

richardhomer

I still buy CDs and rip them losslessly to a NAS drive, replayed via a high-end streamer. I’d rather own an uncompressed physical copy, than pay for lossless streaming.

My teenage son is a world-film buff and buys lots of Blu-rays from HMW, which he tells me are not available on streaming services, or are exorbitantly priced on Amazon.

Whenever we’re out in Manchester or Liverpool together - we always go in and always buy something. I’ll be very sorry if it disappears completely this time round.

fandango

Am old enough to remember HMV's contemporary in the the High Street - Our Price Records. Used to love hunting the limited editions.

I was in my nearest HMV on Boxing Day (as I managed to escape for a couple of hours), but since they never stock what I like, I left empty handed. Again. Why do I bother?

ICBM

darthed1981 said:

terada said:

Amazing, who'd have thought that a business selling cds and dvds wouldn't be a going concern 

Thing is, last time, the music and film industries realised that if HMV left the high street then they would be almost totally at the mercy of Amazon for all their sales of physical media.  In the UK physical media is still a 2 billion business, so more than 4x the size of musical instrument retail, according to a quick google.

It is still a very big albeit declining market, there would be enough market there to be a sustainable business for a few years longer if the rest of the conditions currently affecting the high street were not so.

I think another problem is that they've given over about half their floor space to vinyl - at least in the one I go to - which is all very cool and hip, but the plain fact is that the number of buyers and the market share just doesn't justify that. Only 3% of music sales are vinyl, and despite the (now) much higher prices of vinyl, CDs still generate four times as much income.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-44121657

But the one I go to is always mobbed when I go in, so I'm not sure it should be written off just yet. I also have a suspicion that the small number of vinyl 'superfans' who are really supporting the vinyl revival don't tend to shop in HMV anyway.

darthed1981

fandango said:

Am old enough to remember HMV's contemporary in the the High Street - Our Price Records. Used to love hunting the limited editions.

I was in my nearest HMV on Boxing Day (as I managed to escape for a couple of hours), but since they never stock what I like, I left empty handed. Again. Why do I bother?

Not just Our Price, there was Virgin Megastores, MVC, Zavvi for a while...

With the best will in the world, stocking everything to everyone's taste is massively beyond the ability of any high street shop.

Thing is, if their only competition disappears, will Amazon bother?  They have already surrendered a huge chunk of back-catalogue to third party sellers only, how long before they  really only stock a limited "top 20" selection of CDs like the supermarkets?

Brize

richardhomer said:

My teenage son is a world-film buff

Good lad. I thought most teenagers were just into car chases, aliens and explosions.

Johnnyseven

ICBM said:

darthed1981 said:

terada said:

Amazing, who'd have thought that a business selling cds and dvds wouldn't be a going concern 

Thing is, last time, the music and film industries realised that if HMV left the high street then they would be almost totally at the mercy of Amazon for all their sales of physical media.  In the UK physical media is still a 2 billion business, so more than 4x the size of musical instrument retail, according to a quick google.

It is still a very big albeit declining market, there would be enough market there to be a sustainable business for a few years longer if the rest of the conditions currently affecting the high street were not so.

I think another problem is that they've given over about half their floor space to vinyl - at least in the one I go to - which is all very cool and hip, but the plain fact is that the number of buyers and the market share just doesn't justify that. Only 3% of music sales are vinyl, and despite the (now) much higher prices of vinyl, CDs still generate four times as much income.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-44121657

But the one I go to is always mobbed when I go in, so I'm not sure it should be written off just yet. I also have a suspicion that the small number of vinyl 'superfans' who are really supporting the vinyl revival don't tend to shop in HMV anyway.

I like to buy my vinyl from the HMV website for delivery to the HMV store in Croydon as it saves the hassle of couriers trying to deliver when i'm not home. It's a great service for me.

paddyb

I don’t buy dvd’s anymore but I do buy cd’s and lp’s. All of the local independent stores that I buy from seem to the doing well for themselves at the moment.

GoldenEraGuitars

Just out of the Belfast store with an armful of new tunes. I refuse to by CDs online. 

Such a shame that another retailer is coming to an end (fingers crossed they survive). 

Sassafras

Soon, the only shops left on the high street will be charity shops.

ICBM

Sassafras said:

Soon, the only shops left on the high street will be charity shops.

To be honest, that is where I buy most of my CDs...

Legionreturns

Sassafras said:

Soon, the only shops left on the high street will be charity shops.

The high street, and every single shopping centre, seem to have been taken over by "fashion" shops, bookies and trendy coffee chains. There is almost nothing I'm interested in buying. I'm not likely to pay to park my car for the privilege. 

richardhomer

Brize said:

richardhomer said:

My teenage son is a world-film buff

Good lad. I thought most teenagers were just into car chases, aliens and explosions.

Same with him - just so long as they have subtitles

Sporky

fandango said:

Am old enough to remember HMV's contemporary in the the High Street - Our Price Records. Used to love hunting the limited editions.

Our Price was ace. There was a very hairy bloke who worked there who put stuff aside that he thought I'd like. He wasn't often wrong. 

King85

I think the high street is almost certainly just going to become service industry based tbh restaurants, coffee shops, hairdressers, nail salons, etc.

This is the natural progression of industry really and there's no real need to actively try to save the high street. People want convenience and range, throw in free returns and collection points and you can't lose imo.

Job loses are the obvious tragic part in any business going under but a changing market just means new jobs appear elsewhere.

Wazmeister

Shame about HMV, but inevitable in this day and age...

It is a dinosaur, and an expensive one at that. I remember a few years ago where they always put the popular Christmas CDs (e.g. Beatles) up to £15.99. Then dropped em after Christmas...

Lots of nostalgia, lots of memories of 'simpler' times, but it's not survived for a reason sadly...