How can hmv survive

It may be vastly reduced, but there's definite demand because it's still there with vinyl growing. I think there will always be a physical business. Music Week revealed last week that vinyl sales are up again for the year to date. Physical sales were stable last week at In common with indie retailers, HMV invested in its online operation. There should now be a significant boost from the reopening on the High Street, particularly at a time when supermarkets may be focusing less space on music.

HMV will also have a captive audience of music fans who are still unable to attend concerts until after the summer and may be looking to use their discretionary spending elsewhere although a reduced VAT rate is encouraging advance ticket sales. The resilience of the HMV brand was underlined this week with the news that the retailer has secured naming rights to a relaunched venue in Coventry.

When the centenary celebrations roll out in July, it will be another reason for shoppers to visit a branch and for media to cover the story of its evolution and survival as other chains disappeared. HMV has quietly installed a new managing director, Phil Halliday, who stepped up in August after joining as financial director in June. With a purchase that is not a simple commodity, price has little baring because its the buying experience and the added value that is important.

The rot started in the mid s when the music industry began the great compact disc swindle. Because it was smaller we lost the experience of the album cover art. Because CD singles and albums were the same size we lost the specialness of both mediums.

Because it was so handy and cheap it was quickly devalued and able to be given away free with magazines. The digital nature of the encoded audio and availability of CD burners meant it became easy to duplicate. By removing all the awkwardness and weaknesses of the vinyl record, they had transformed recorded music into a cheap, valueless commodity. They are bigger, heavier, have bigger almost poster-like artwork.

They are fragile. To play a vinyl record you have to remove it carefully from the sleeve, place it on the spindle, lift the needle into place. After 3 or 20 minutes or so you have to lift the needle again and turn the disc over. This is rubbish. The irony is that the secret to the safe survival of the music industry was right there all the time, inside the music industry with the songwriters and musicians that make new music.

The technology involved in recorded sound has advanced unimaginably since the early s and yet all new rock bands that start making music aim to make that music using methods and technology that goes back 50 years. In the s VOX amplifiers brought back their old fashioned looking range of amps because all the bands wanted their stage to look like what all the classic bands stages looked like. Amplifier manufacturers ditched the advanced electronics and transistors to return to the values and tubes of the 60s because the musicians wanted that authentic value sound.

And of course every rock band wants their records to be released on vinyl. Of course not all new music follows this pattern and amazing sounds and new forms of music have been created with new technology too. The point here is that the music industry failed to realise that all music is not the same. The dance halls are filed with electronica, young girls fill their iPods with the latest pre-fab teenybopper and festival goers want their bands to be live and authentic.

These are just three types of music which are created and consumed in completely different ways by different types of people for different types of people. And yet HMV and the like tried to sell it all in the same way, and when that started to fail they filled their shops with DVDs, computer games and iMacs, betraying the music audience they used to serve and appealed to no-one.

They need to re-discover that music is an experience. Some of those experiences can be packaged and sold at a profit and some cannot. They need to stop treating all music as the same thing.

Music shops and bookshops seem to moan or panic as if such an advantage is a noose around their neck. If retail was dead, how come Apple Inc. If the music shops realised that certain genres of music have an audience that would relish having a shop experience they could have transformed their retail units to accommodate them. By getting rid of all products that people would rather buy somewhere else they could have re-stocked vinyl records a niche but growing market.

They could have hosted classic album listening sessions. They could have hosted live bands. They could have built a model around the long-tail selling many different obscure materials rather than stocking just few obvious titles.

They should have realised that the markets these ideas would appeal to have the money and inclination to want it. It would mean only the music genres that have the strongest experiential and lifestyle elements: possibly including new emerging urban sounds, some types of dance, classic rock, blues, jazz and folk basically all the music forms created from the ground up by people, not manufactured to a formula by music industry management.

They can only be blamed on an inability to creatively change the business model to follow the money. Book Ayd to speak at your event. For more interesting info see:. Great article Ayd. Sadly, most retailers focus on cost saving — rather than value.

Hence the expansion in self-service tills that reduce the retail experience to being worse than online — there is not even the advantage of dealing with a pleasant person. Like Like. Agree with your article. My local HMV used to have a sound-proofed section where the classical music was which was a haven away from whatever other music was piped throughout the store. In his recent Music Week interview , Putman spoke about the need for the industry and suppliers to support the chain.

Putman has expressed his belief that the format has a future. But he also acknowledged that HMV could expand its pop culture, apparel and merchandise business. Putman is even considering open a separate retail brand — previous working title of Cherrybomb — to capitalise on pop culture sales. It seems that, when it comes to the high street, it has been bad news for as long as I can remember. Although HMV is not exactly booming to the point where there will be no more store closures, it is a relief that they have been able to ride the COVID tide well.

I would like to see HMV back on Oxford Street, as there are so few bigger record stores in Central London, and the flagship store had a nice balance of vinyl, C. HMV chain saved but some stores will close. Musicisthebest , LarryP , Squiggsy68 and 3 others like this. I've bought from their online store a few times in the last couple of years and the experience has been good, with prices undercutting Amazon on the items I bought new releases.

Hope they keep it running. Rufus McDufus , Feb 5, That's how I feel anyway AND the bigger picture is the demise of the high street owing to online sales. Surely we still want to enjoy going shopping, visiting a store and buying a t-shirt, album or DvD? Last edited: Feb 5, Diego Lucas , sound chaser , TheKevster and 10 others like this.

Location: Sheffield, UK. Just heard on BBC news that the owner of the Canadian takeover firm is a big vinyl fan. Location: East Linton, Scotland. Nice to read some good news for a change. Very sorry to hear that some staff will still lose their jobs, but at least the staff are being told privately before any public announcements - unlike last December when staff were left to discover the news via social media. It'll be interesting to see if the new owners can not just save HMV, but possibly help it to grow.

They seem to have the right attitude: " It is very clear that the customer wants more selection on vinyl, more depth of catalogue," he said. But people like to come into a store, have an experience, talk with someone who understands music, loves music, loves video and entertainment. If you think online is the only future I don't think that is the case. Valen , Feb 5, Location: London, UK.

Graham , Feb 5, FourWalledWorld likes this. Location: Bury, Lancashire U.