HMV calls in the administrators

[Soloman Tump]

Regardless of whether you like them or not, this is a real nail in the coffin for UK music.

Being the last music retailer left in the UK highstreet, many would say that HMV were the downfall of Our Price, MVC, fopp and countless independent stores up and down the UK. And if a buyer is not found for the existing HMV stores, many towns will now be left without a dedicated music store.

 

But I would say in many ways they have brought it on themselves.

• Their online presence is poor, definitely not kept up with Amazon / Play etc...
• They seemed to be selling more computer games, puzzles, t-shirts and gadgets than actual music / movies. The oxford store is hideously disorganised, movies, games and music all muddled in together on the ground floor with no apparent structure.
• They seemed to alienate proper music fans by not stocking many special releases, labels or media [such as their dropping of vinyl sales at some point last decade]. Many HMV stores used to have record decks and dedicated vinyl / dj sections with knowledgeable staff.
• Their staff, whilst once knowledgable in all fields, recently seemed to have no knowledge of popular music what so ever! Whenever I have asked anything recently its always been down to searching for something on the database rather than knowing what I am on about.

Fingers crossed for the rise of the independent stores once again!

 

*edit*

I do hope that a buyer is found and many of the stores stay open. I do think that they need to go back to concentrating on music again however. And I hope that nobody here has a job that is under threat....

[Guest Lucy Faringold]

Used to buy stuff from them online regularly but then they became hugely unreliable and couldn't even guarantee stock for pre-orders.

 

Can't remember the last time I went into one of their shops.

 

I can see the point about casual music buyers having less places to shop but I don't really care about the kind of artists that casual music buyers support.

[Guest Ron Manager]

I agree with your points feltcher. They could have done much more to arrest the decline. A few years back they began selling more personal electronics (mostly music-related), which seemed like a promising move, but they only ever seemed to stock crap. It flopped completely.

 

NB they own the resurrected Fopp too, so their 9 or so branches are also on the brink.

 

People are saying this is another sign of 'economic crisis'. I just don't think that's the case - people are pretty much buying as much film and music as ever, they just don't do it in HMV for two reasons: 1) unless it's a reduced-price item, HMV is ludicrously expensive, particularly for new releases, and 2) an awful lot of people have abandoned physical media completely. This is pretty obvious to most of us here, but bizarrely seems to be overlooked by so many 'business analysts' who predicate HMV's collapse on a poor economy.

 

A large-scale physical media presence on the high street is sadly doomed I think. Apart from niche record shops in big cities, I can't see CD and DVD sales recovering, not when most people are happy to buy digitally or get it cheaper from Amazon. The same must be around the corner for books - Waterstones don't seem to be doing well for all the same reasons.

[Soloman Tump]

I also read that they brought in a "no visible tattoo" policy, which instantly alienated a lot of their good metal / rock staff! Doh.

 

I didn't realise that there were still fopp stores about, hopefully that size of shop still has a place on the high street.

[spratters]

Yeah that's a hell of a lot of jobs lost if it continues down this path. Unfortunate really. I used to get a fair few DnB vinyl when they sold it.

[Malkmus]

shit...was just typing a reply thanking the stars we still have 2 FOPPs left in Glasgow otherwise there would be nowhere in the city centre to buy new music, then read the above.

 

There is no arguement that they have made bad decisions along the way, shops were never properly invested in, always a mess, with no real structure.

The move into electronic goods away from the lower margin cd / t shirts/ poster sales probably stopped this happening sooner tbh but to fail while you are the only remaining big

player in the market is pretty poor management.

 

BUT this biggest factor in this has to be Amazon and their IIse of Man / Rep of Ireland registered tax dodging, all take and no give ilk, who are playing by different rules than the highstreet.

I'm all for free enterprise but there actually has to come a point where for the social good we need to support institutions that create jobs / use local floorspace etc...but thats for another day.

[Friendly Foil]

I bought my copy of Fantasm Planes in HMV when I was in Manchester last year. It was hella expensive compared to pretty much every single internet retailer, so I can see why less and less people buy their stuff there.

 

That said, the store itself seemed fairly organized and the people working there were pretty friendly. Not a big enough selection of the idmz though. Maybe that's why things are looking bad.

[hello spiral]

I like the big HMV in Oxford street but you can tell even that one is suffering. They were doing some ridiculous offer on box sets from 1st of January to the 5th where I ended up getting £300 worth of stuff for £70.

 

And yeah, as others have said, everything at full price is always slightly overpriced and if you go in there looking for something specific rather than to browse, it's never in stock. Not obscure stuff either. off the top of my head the last things were the original Dawn of the Dead and Edward Scissorhands.

The one more local to me in Harrow shut down overnight with no warning, a couple of months before that the manager had told me to download something they didn't stock(!)

 

"They seemed to be selling more computer games, puzzles, t-shirts and gadgets than actual music / movies."

 

HMV used to own Waterstones. My girlfriend works there and has often ranted about the amount of non-book tat they were made to sell.

 

"I see you're purchasing Proust, would you also like this this singing, electronic, plastic watering can?"

[keltoi]

i hope fopp can survive...

 

i heard this news on the way to work and was going to start a more general thread about the demise of high street/city centre shopping... the internet is basically already a virtual shopping centre so in 5-10 years there may be no need for actual shops at all in our town and city high streets. high-profile/high-rent premises are becoming less viable for the retailer... so what will take their place? take princes street in edinburgh for example... i foresee a time in the not too distant future when it becomes one of the most sought after residential addresses in scotland (or even the UK)... overlooking the gardens, to the castle and with elevated views north to the firth of forth and fife. no shops, just fancy hotels and apartment complexes with multi-million pound penthouse suites.

 

not too far a stretch?

[Guest chunky]

SAYONARA HMV

[Guest Iain C]

I find it remarkably difficult to give a damn. RIP a business.

Actually, that's a little unfair. I give a damn about the people who'll be losing jobs. Good luck on benefits, you poor bastards.

[Soloman Tump]

fopp in Leamington Spa used to be pretty great, one of my local haunts for buying vinyl and lesser known CDs whilst at Uni.

 

They opened a fopp in Oxford for a while on the site of Massive Records when that shut down, but it only lasted about a year before also closing.

 

 

i hope fopp can survive...

 

take princes street in edinburgh for example... i foresee a time in the not too distant future when it becomes one of the most sought after residential addresses in scotland (or even the UK)... overlooking the gardens, to the castle and with elevated views north to the firth of forth and fife. no shops, just fancy hotels and apartment complexes with multi-million pound penthouse suites.

 

not too far a stretch?

 

I could see this happening in Oxford too. Oxford has a relatively small city centre for shops, which is completely surrounded by colleges and their grounds. I would imagine that 90% (if not more) of the city centre is owned by the colleges anyway. If the shops close, there will be demand for residences, hotels, restaurants, theatres etc.

 

Places like Swindon will be screwed though!

[Guest Ron Manager]

I see it going something along those lines, keltoi. I was at my parents' who live in Lincolnshire over Christmas, and all the local news was about every night was 'the death of the high street', and about how local councils are pouring millions into town centres to make them more attractive and such. But you can't help but think this is a losing battle. Shops are nice, it's fun on occasion to go into a town/city and look at physical products and be able to buy them then and there. But as Comet and Jessops found out, the people who do go in tend to look at a product, go home to think about it, go online, read reviews (which are far more helpful than most shop employees can ever hope to be unfortunately), and then find it cheaper on Amazon and buy it there anyway.

 

The high street is finished. Best to stop wasting money on rejuvenating them along consumer lines and start to re-think what the point of them really should be.

[Bob Dylan]

Why do you care about a business? It's just a business. They die and others are born. That's capitalism.

[Guest yikes]

Why do you care about a business? It's just a business. They die and others are born. That's capitalism.

 

dear happy smart oxford economist professor type genius…...

 

in 2013 there is a slim chance of any new record store opening to replace the ones lost.

doubtful that nicky blackmarket will come running over and open a new shop to replace the HMV,since all the other major record chains are gone the only chance of replacement IS from a specialty boutique music shop.

some people do like to buy actual product,vinyl,cds,posters ,ephemera etc because of the tactile experience.

[keltoi]

I find it remarkably difficult to give a damn. RIP a business.

 

 

Why do you care about a business? It's just a business. They die and others are born. That's capitalism.

 

it's a sad sign of the times whether you care about a thriving economy and (un)employment levels or not. although i don't ever shop at hmv unless i get a voucher as a present, it's been a permanent fixture on our high streets for nearly a hundred years and as said above, is unlikely to ever be replaced by a similar music/film/game retailer. what we're heading for is retail park and warehouse retail like argos and i personally hate the prospect of that. of course hmv could have helped themselves by competing in the online market but again that is another step away from physical shopping as we know it.

[Guest Iain C]

what we're heading for is retail park and warehouse retail like argos and i personally hate the prospect of that.

 

Are we? Comet died a death last year too.

[Malkmus]

some people do like to buy actual product,vinyl,cds,posters ,ephemera etc because of the tactile experience.

 

agreed, maybe its a generational thing, but i prefer to browse in a music shop and pick up random buys based on any number of criteria..percieved bargain / lucky find / nice cover / actually hearing it played in the store (many a time i've walked into fopp and bought the album thats being displayed behind the till as now playing) ....as poor as it was, HMV and FOPP remained the only show in town with that amount of choice.

 

....think the main lament here is that as this business dies nothing else will be born from it. nothing similar will come along to replace it or improve on it.

 

Its personal preference (and a luxury as well i suppose) but i refuse to put price first when it comes to my purchases. ASDA may be cheapest but I just cant stand there stack em high sell em cheap experience in store and avoid it like the plague. I've taken the same stand when it comes to the online retailers recently. If they aggresivly avoid paying tax in this country I cant support them.

 

nicked from the ninja forum: http://www.philipbeeching.com/2012/08/why-companies-fail-rise-and-fall-of-hmv.html enforces how badly manage it was i suppose.

[keltoi]

what we're heading for is retail park and warehouse retail like argos and i personally hate the prospect of that.

 

Are we? Comet died a death last year too.

 

sorry, if you read my 1st and 2nd post together i think you can see what i'm getting at...

 

i meant the only alternative to online shopping will be low rent, retail park or warehouse style shopping... high street shopping as we know it is dying.

[keltoi]

nicked from the ninja forum: http://www.philipbeeching.com/2012/08/why-companies-fail-rise-and-fall-of-hmv.html enforces how badly manage it was i suppose.

 

interesting, thanks.

[Guest Iain C]

what we're heading for is retail park and warehouse retail like argos and i personally hate the prospect of that.

 

Are we? Comet died a death last year too.

 

sorry, if you read my 1st and 2nd post together i think you can see what i'm getting at...

 

i meant the only alternative to online shopping will be low rent, retail park or warehouse style shopping... high street shopping as we know it is dying.

 

 

I hear what you're saying but I find it hard to be nostalgic about high street shopping - to be honest i hate the entire experience.

 

Second hand record/book shops are a different kettle of fish - places with character and interesting stock, that don't rip you off (as often) - but the only tragedy here is for the 4,000 people getting the sack.

[keltoi]

Second hand record/book shops are a different kettle of fish - places with character and interesting stock, that don't rip you off (as often)

 

small independent shops are obviously more appealing for me too but unless they have a strong online presence they're unlikely to prosper.

[tec]

I work part-time in Waterstone's so this is a bit worrying.

 

HMV totally lost their focus, they have boring stock and the shops look like a warehouse. Fopp is a greater loss, I love browsing in there and buying a decent film I had completely forgot about for 3 quid.

[Npoess]

Since it's a 'psychical' music retailer it's quite sad. I hope it's not further proof that psychical media in music is a slowly dying format.

 

Had it been blockbuster or some other movie/games retailer, I wouldn't a shit. That stuff can't be completely digitalized quick enough.

 

But not music.

[Friendly Foil]

Since a 'psychical' music retailer it's quite sad. I hope it's not further proof that psychical media in music is a slowly dying format.

 

Had it been blockbuster or some other movie/games retailer, I wouldn't a shit. That stuff can't be completely digitalized quick enough.

 

But not music.

That makes no sense.

 

At least with games it comes with manuals and shit. A CD comes in some lame jewel-case that breaks in 20 places before you even get to put the CD into your player.

 

Digital-only (which will happen at some point) will be awful. Like the different studios and companies doesn't have enough control over the stuff we pay for as it is.