HMV overtakes Amazon for physical music sales

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by Jim B., Oct 29, 2018.

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  1. blair207

    blair207 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Fife, Scotland
    Fopp in Edinburgh is good. I either buy there or HMV online. I avoid Amazon
     
  2. Deuce66

    Deuce66 Senior Member

    Location:
    Canada
    I don't think so they were doing fine while HMV was around, the internet, file sharing and CD burners. Ed's closed due to declining sales, they saw the writing on the wall and got out before it got ugly, Vortex (same + Bert retirement).

    10 lost but not forgotten record stores in Toronto
     
  3. Jachay

    Jachay Forum Resident

    Location:
    GTA

    Forgot about the Vinyl Museum referenced in that article. I'm sure I have some sleeves with some biblical versus on them.
     
  4. His Master's Voice was the retail arm of EMI in the UK and spread to other countries. Due to the His Master's Voice/Nipper dog logo being owned by RCA in the Americas and former affiliate, Victor Company of Japan/JVC in Japan, the retail chain was just known as HMV without the Nipper/Gramophone logo.

    HMV had a brief time in the US in major US cities. More well known in UK, Canada, Japan, Australia, etc.
     
  5. Giacomo Belbo

    Giacomo Belbo Journalist for Rolling Stone 1976-1979

    Support your local record store! I personally despise big record chains both as an experience as well as a stance towards music. If I can’t find what I’m looking for at my local record store I still prefer to order from an independent online store like Picadilly records in Manchester (impeccable service and excellent prices), rather than further build a big chain. My view and of course no affiliation with either.
     
  6. Etienne Hanratty

    Etienne Hanratty Forum Resident

    Location:
    uk
    For the last few years, HMV has been a bit of a disappointment. The ones near me rarely stock much in the way of older albums and what they hsve is usually at least 10% cheaper on Amazon. The Manchester store is a particular let down now (back in the day, there were 2 on Market Street, one of which was massive; today, there’s only one middle sized store which is heavily geared towards DVDs, and no Virgin:Zavvi either). Even Warrington has a better vinyl selection.

    FOPP is terrific, though. Even if it doesn’t have what I’ve come in looking for, which is rare, I’m guaranteed to find something equally interesting which I didn’t know I wanted. Hard to believe they’ Part of the sane stable.
     
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  7. Vaughan

    Vaughan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Essex, UK
    The nearest "music" store to me is indeed, a HMV. I put music in quotes, because it goes something like this:

    Walk to doors. Enter store. Make my way passed racks and racks of Sale DVD's and Blu-Rays. Walk passed racks of full priced DVD/Blu-Rays. Walk passed stacks of books. Walk passed the "accessory" rack and poster collections. Walk passed racks of video games. Finally find the CD's.

    HMV is broken.
     
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  8. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    These days HMV is a shadow of what it was and as the last chain standing they are rather important not just to buyers, but also to labels, take HMV out of the equation and Amazon gain a lot more power as the only people left capable of buying large quantities, I don't think any of us want Amazon to have even more power. Picadilly, Juno, Normans, Honest Jon's, Sounds Of The Universe, Dub Vendor, Badlands, etc., etc. are all very important, but it takes a lot of even good independents to generate HMV levels of sales.

    I'm not sure if this thread is to blame, but I've just given HMV £79 for the Don Rendell and Ian Carr "The Complete Lansdowne Recording 1965 -1969" box set, I think that's a pretty reasonable price, it definitely is compared to buying originals anyway.
     
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  9. uncarvedbloke

    uncarvedbloke Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK - SOT
    HMV has called in the administrators today for the second time, shops will still trade while a buyer is sought.
     
  10. It's Felix

    It's Felix It's not really me

    I know, what a shame. But then the prices in store for vinyl were so high. Such a shame as they had a massive range.
     
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  11. It's Felix

    It's Felix It's not really me

    Rough Trade is probably the best physical Vinyl shop left then, followed by Resident in Brighton and Sounds of the Universe in London. Slim pickings all round....
     
  12. carrolls

    carrolls Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dublin
    I just look at it as things going back to the way they were before physical media was invented.
     
  13. sunking101

    sunking101 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Yorkshire, England
    It's bound to be 10% cheaper on Amazon. What do people seriously expect? HMV have to pay rent and rates on very expensive prime retail units. Bricks & mortar stores have their advantages though, you can get the product in your hands today and you can make sure there are no defects in the packaging before leaving the store. I will happily pay 10-20% mark-up for that.
     
  14. Etienne Hanratty

    Etienne Hanratty Forum Resident

    Location:
    uk
    True enough, but my trips to HMV would not infrequently end in disappointment when they didn’t have the item I wanted in stock. In contrast, Amazon nearly always will, even if the prices on Marketplace can be exorbitant.

    That said, if this really is it for HMV, it will be a huge loss. It’s not a shadow of what it was but that massive shop on Market Street was one of the main reasons I went to university in Manchester (after the Morrissey link and fluffing the Oxford interview).
     
    Brenald79 likes this.
  15. Godbluff

    Godbluff Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    The Market Street shop was great but with the benefit of hindsight opening huge stores like that signalled the beginning of HMV's problems, when the management's arrogance got in the way of good business sense. It was way too big for purpose, with two of the six floors never used, and an astonomical rent - even in the boom years it was unsustainable. I guess the owners of the time wanted to make a big statement with enormous flagship stores but the Manchester shop was always running at a loss and of course they also had the smaller shop just along Market Street and then moved into the Virgin Megastore in the Arndale Centre when they went tits-up. Three stores within a couple of minutes walk of each other, what were they thinking? So the new store is a shadow of its predecessor but it's what the current market can realistically sustain (or not, as will be seen in the next few months) and the depth of stock is still pretty decent, I can get most of what I want there without having to resort to using Amazon - and HMV are invariably cheaper or at least on-par, certainly for CDs anyway.
     
    Etienne Hanratty and melstapler like this.
  16. If HMV does go out of business, you can see what its loss would mean for physical media in the UK market. A huge chunk of business for music labels disappears. Amazon UK is just not interested in the category much anymore, even if its main competitor for music disappears.
     
  17. spanky1

    spanky1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    Fopp????
    I'm a Dapper Dan man! :tiphat:
     
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