HMV Really is Fucked Isn’t It
Apart from the number of my friends who work there, it’s difficult to feel any real sympathy for the lumbering dinosaur that is HMV. Nevertheless, I do find the company’s struggles quite fascinating, and they really do seem to be on death’s door at the moment.
Generally when I end up discussing this with anyone it tends to be solely within the context of music retail. What will the slow death of HMV do for smaller independent shops? What will it do for music sales when the only remaining large high street retailer finally vanishes?
These are valid and interesting questions of course, but they tend to lead to quite narrow discussions about what little remains of their business model. HMV is struggling not just because music retail is fucked, but because the whole retail sector is in turmoil. In the wake of the disruption caused by the internet, out of town aircraft hanger superstores seem to be fine and high-end boutique retailers seem to be fine, but HMV is neither of these things, so it is facing difficulties both by virtue of its place within the retail environment, as well as the more sector-specific issues caused by the fact that the selling of mp3s quite simply makes shops redundant in the first place.
At first they thought games and DVDs would save them, but the only reason those products aren’t just as problematic for retailers as music is simply that the files are larger, so as solutions go, that was obviously always going to be short term. Then for some utterly inexplicable (and borderline hilarious) reason they seemed to decide recently that the selling of headphones and mp3 players was the answer to their dreams.
The actual design of the shops themselves is fucking awful, so no-one wants to actually go there just for the sake of spending some time, and almost everything they sell is either directly downloadable from the internet or more easily and cheaply bought there instead. And still they flail about, like a beetle which has been half crushed but somehow won’t just die. It’s a bit like watching the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail desperately try and insist that he isn’t beaten.
They are so very fucked that they recently had to donate 2.5% of themselves to their suppliers to restructure their debt profile and remain something approaching legally solvent. That sounds to me like a suspiciously sneaky way of phrasing a confession that they couldn’t pay their suppliers for their stock and hence had to offer them equity instead, in order to keep trading.
And presumably the likes of Disney, Warner’s, Sony and their ilk are still sufficiently determined to maintain a foothold on the high street that they feel they have no choice but to accept. I suppose they aren’t comfortable with Amazon and places like Tesco’s being their main outlets and feel they need something in the centre of town as well.
HMV have sold a lot of our albums too – well, those above a certain threshold of nationwide profile anyway – so I can understand the major labels being scared of letting them go to the wall. I suppose that in their position, once you’ve let that one get away it must seem like you are pretty much giving up on selling music on bits of plastic in future, and that is still too bit a piece of pie to give up on just yet.
But honestly, I can’t imagine why you would ever shop in HMV. It’s not a particularly appealing ‘destination store’, and Amazon has better choice and better prices. If you are looking for specific or obscure stuff for the collector then buying direct from bands or labels or highly curated physical or online shops will always be a better bet.
Funnily enough I can see more hope for small independents that I can for HMV. They can make a difference with knowledgeable and personable staff, they can make the shops themselves nice places to go without a rebranding directive from central command, and they have more freedom (and one would assume more inclination) to engage with the local music community as well.
I wouldn’t suggest that this is anything like a simple blueprint for running a successful indie shop, but it certainly feels like a more viable basis for a business than anything HMV can conceivably twist themselves into at the moment.
I do find myself wondering what happens if they do cease to exist though. It may be to the advantage of the smaller shops, I can imagine that, although it may just serve to drive more people permanently towards Amazon instead.
From the perspective of the smaller labels from ourselves upwards, however, I wonder a little about the potential collapse of HMV and the removal of yet another ‘middle step’ for artists on the way up from obscurity to viability.
When 6Music was under threat one of my main worries was the gap it would leave between amateur podcasters and mainstream XFM/Radio1 exposure, and the enormous amount of resources and luck it would take to bridge that gap. If HMV were to go I sort of worry about the same thing, but this time in terms of unit shifting.
To make a step from low level indie success to the kind of success required to become a viable, full-time professional band, you have to from selling a relatively small number of thousand albums – which you can do by selling through the band and label websites, at gigs and in small indie shops – to selling albums in the tens of thousands. I am not sure if you can do that currently without the kind of casual ubiquity provided by reasonable placement within high street shops.
Maybe I’m wrong about that of course. I certainly have no love for HMV, and the desperate flailing generated by what appears to be their death throes is downright comical, but every time a piece of the existing music infrastructure crumbles I do inevitably find myself worrying a little about the implications. As the established routes to viability collapse, those of us at the bottom are basically stuck here until we can figure out new ways to build those bridges, and the more of the existing structures which collapse the longer that will take. That’s a commercial nuisance to us as a label of course, and it is a tragedy for the potentially great bands trapped in obscurity, who might otherwise have been able to actually crack it to at least some level.
But nevertheless I find it difficult to mourn at all for a company who have built great, ugly, cavernous shops and yet don’t seem to have the faintest idea what to put in them, and who even as their last limbs are hacked off keep loudly insisting that they will bite you to death. I used to actually shop in HMV regularly, you know, but I can’t possibly imagine anything they could turn themselves into which would ever make me really want to go back.
I thought that they were under the weather and a bit past it. I didnt realise that they were fucked until I read this! Im inclined to agree with you!
K*
Weirdly, the one bright spot in HMV’s financials was their move into selling headphones and mp3 players – although why on earth anyone would buy them overpriced from HMV rather than online from Amazon or Play.com is beyond me.
Ignoring the wider music industry, I would imagine that the death of HMV would be a good thing for smaller boutique physical stores. Much of the CD-selling business is for presents for birthdays and Christmas (you can’t unwrap mp3s), and if HMV’s footfall moves into the indie shops then all the better for them.
I have always found HMV (and Virgin Megastores previously) to be horrible shopping experiences that remind me of times my dad used to drag me around whilst he skipped through the racks looking for whatever album he was after that week. HMV lost that business to online, as if you are only going into the shop to by something you already know you want – why make the effort to go to the shops when you can buy it cheaper from the sofa. And you’d know if they have it in stock straight away.
Online stores just don’t offer the same feeling of discovery as a real record shop though. Indies like Rough Trade or Banquet make music buying a journey of discovery with knowledgeable staff and lots of stuff you may not otherwise have come across.
Experiences are hard to find online, and for that reason they seem to be going from strength to strength with online barely denting their business. If, like HMV, the “experience” is like being herded into a cattle truck with top 40 tunes being blasted too loudly into your ears, and surrounded by people with glazed eyes being bored with the selection in front of them – then good riddance.
It seems like another step in the hollowing out of the middle as the music industry bifurcates into big bands raking it in and tiny bands doing DIY and nothing in between where there used to be a bunch of people just making a reasonable living.
I am sure headphones are a bright spark for them, but I cannot for the life of me imagine it is one which is going to last very long, or one bright enough to prop up the lumbering behemoth which is the rest of their business.
The only fear about their demise which I would have would be that instead of leading to increased footfall elsewhere it simply serves to drive everyone online, which is a plausible enough outcome, I think.
“When acts like Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber come in to our stores, it is to promote their headphones,” HMV boss Simon Fox told The Guardian.
Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-hahaa…..
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha…
Ohhh…
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaa…..
It could also drive people who are sort of half interested in music into narrowing their focus and only browsing the albums in their local Tesco.
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha…
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haa…..
Heh.
Heh.
*cough*
I too worry for the future sales of all plastic lumps. Collectors and fans aren’t enough to sustain these shops if the production of CDs becomes more and more expensive as less people do it only those with Tesco appeal will actually get made.
For a while now I’ve been thinking physical media’s days are numbered. This just is just a sign that it might be sooner than you think.
At the risk of sounding a bit of knob , HMV really need to start with what does the brand stand for? in the last decade I think that’s been Sweet FA.
With the heritage they have and the doomsday scenario they currently face (probably the rents) I think their only option it to downsize and position the brand as ‘ master voice – music experts’ (or a fancier version of this). From there, they would need to live and breath music and engage with venues, promoters, bands, labels technical experts, festivals etc. As well as having great shops/ venues to visit
Maybe there is a gap in the market for a passionate mid sized business to fulfil this role, maybe not. Either way it’s got to be more fun than the half hearted survival attempts they are trying.
Having now read that quote that Dylan posted
I take it all back…they are fucked
Good riddance, I say. Twenty years ago, I was working for Our Price (remember them?). There was an abundance of record stores around, major chains and indies. I was never out of them: browsing, listening, chatting to the staff, buying… yes, buying. Loads and loads and loads – 7-inches, 12-inches, LPs, CDs…
One by one they vanished. It was quite sad when it started, especially the small independents, but it was inevitable. The indies that remain have adapted well, exploiting a niche market they have identified and restructuring their business model accordingly. My local indie, Diverse in Newport, specialises in vinyl. It has a fantastic mail-order arm which deals with customers all over the world, its own re-issues label, and hold gigs and music events at local venues. HMV sells DVDs, games and headphones. Diverse is thriving. HMV is… fucked.
The truth is, two things have killed the music retail sector. The Internet may be at the heart of both, but ultimately, those two things are the music industry and the music retail sector itself. Neither acknowledged the immense potential (and growing influence) of the Internet at a time when it really should have and clunkily groaned on regardless. To this day, both bemoan the ‘net, yet both have failed (and continue to fail) spectacularly to adapt. The industry now peddles mass-produced nonsense to be played in rotation on peak time Radio One and the never-ending glut of awful commercial stations; as disposable as music can get. Music for people who don’t really like music. CDs nowadays are for people who buy one album a year if they can be bothered.
Real music lovers meanwhile are forced to the Internet to make new discoveries. Often this means relying on word-of-mouth, leaks and illegal downloads. While it has been noted a number of times that those who download most illegally are also those who spend more money on music legally, the industry continually lambasts its biggest potential customer base further alienating us while remaining oblivious to the causes of its real problems.
HMV has been dying a slow, painful death for years. It really should be put out of its misery. Ditto the music industry – or at least the music industry as it currently exists.
Incidentally, has anyone else noticed how the rot began to set in when Popstars/Pop Idol/X-Factor et al hit our screens? Hmmm…..
Robster, I think you are somewhat over-stating the demise of the CD, particularly in regards to the vinyl revival. Despite a massive up-tick in numbers, chart-registered vinyl only sold about 400k units last year, whilst CDs were still in the many, many millions.
I have pals who work in HMV who tell me I would be surprised at the number of people who come in to buy interesting stuff which is a long way from the tedious, identikit chart fodder you’re talking about.
That still doesn’t mean I want to go in there anymore of course, but I still think we underestimate the number of people still operating in a music industry which, for them, hasn’t changed all that much. Not enough to sustain the life of all but one, last, critically wounded high street chain of course, but still a lot more people representing a lot more cash than we might think.
I do wonder about Cogstar’s suggestion about a chain of shops more akin to Fopp (which tends to be omitted from discussions of HMV’s demise, despite being under their umbrella) which is a bit more active and a bit more boutiquey, and if that might be more viable in this day and age, but I have my doubts.
And I certainly have my doubts that HMV could be that chain.
On the subject, check out these pictures of their flagship Oxford St shop in the sixties: http://www.retronaut.co/2011/10/hmv-oxford-street-london-1960s/
Funnily enough I was in there today, trying to spend an Xmas voucher.
An old Kate Bush album and that Janelle Monae record were what I managed. Not bad, but I suspect I’ll struggle with the last tenner.
You should be able to spend those in Fopp given they bloody own them. And if HMV DO go under, what would happen to Fopp?
I’m not sure, but apparently HMV are considering selling off the profitable parts of the business, like Mama Group and so on so, assuming Fopp are profitable, maybe someone will buy them before HMV falls to bits entirely.
Matthew – I agree CDs are still selling, but the numbers are falling. Of the people I know who buy music regularly, most of us have gone completely digital. There are a couple of vinylphiles, and only 2 who still buy CDs.
I’m so glad there are still people out there willing to go the extra mile and seek out the more interesting and obscure things, but it is getting harder. Maybe that’s part of the fun, unearthing something that’s really difficult to find. kind of like going to an old-fashioned record fayre but with new stuff and ‘proper shops’.
But from a personal perspective, I simply don’t have the time or money to do that these days. I have to go online and/or listen to 6Music in order to get my ‘fix’.
I thoroughly recommend this book which tells the story of the demise of music retail from the perspective of a rep: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Shop-Standing-Whatever-Happened/dp/0956121209/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327435208&sr=1-1
One final note: the first time I visited that Oxford Street HMV was when I was 17 and on my first non-adult-supervised trip to the smoke with my mate. I was in there two hours before he got fed up and dragged me out (after I paid for the 20-odd CDs I had picked off the shelves). I only got through A-M. I went back two days later to finish the tour, making it to Z and accumulating another stack of discs along the way.
I went into my local HMV last month. I bought a poster for my daughter and couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there. It was a couple of weeks before Christmas, and those buying music seemed to be pretty much exclusively after “that Adele album”. Like me, many of them were having trouble finding the music section. Right at the back of the store, no less. RIP HMV.
If the Oxford Street branch still looked like that today they would be doing a roaring trade!
Dylan, I think you might be entirely correct.
Robster, I think that unless you get a very carefully curated record shop, the true collector, after small and interesting releases is probably better off on the internet. The quandary, and I don’t have the slightest idea how to solve it, is that any record shop which tries to stock lots of obscure and interesting things is going to end up having far too much stock sitting around, whereas if they try and be a bit mainstream and stock all the hits then they are in danger of lacking character and being beaten on price by Amazon anyway.
If I were to design a record shop from scratch these days I honestly have no idea how I would go about doing it.
That Oxford Street Flagship store is now a Foot Locker (the one where the guy got killed on Boxing Day). The HMV moved across the road a few years ago, but it’s now a clothes shop.
There’s only one HMV left in central London now – the huge one at the east end of Oxford Street, and it’s horrible. I went in there a few months back and it was depressing. I found the vinyl section, a tiny, half-arsed collection of classic rock records and few recent big indie releases. There was probably an equally small ‘dance’ vinyl section somewhere else, but I had lost the will to live by that point.
“I can’t possibly imagine anything they could turn themselves into which would ever make me really want to go back”
A pub?
An HMV pub? Haven’t Slug & Lettuce already done that?
Nah, it’s a mere flesh wound.
Hopefully someone will buy Fopp. And thankfully, HMV didn’t change it – Fopp always managed to sell more decent stuff than crap, unlike HMV where you have to wade through oceans of chart tripe to get to what you want.
The only problem with independent shops is that they can’t afford town centre rents, so unless you happen to live near them, you have to go out of your way. I wonder if any independent shops have enough money to do a bit of marketing to take advantage of HMV’s demise?
Well when I go to record shops it does tend to be Oxfam, Shelter or Vox Box, which are all within a block or two of my house.
Mrs. Toad has lectured me, incidentally, that apparently out-of-town aircraft hangar retailers aren’t doing so well either at the moment. To work well they need massive scale, cheap land and loads of footfall, and the latter of those three is apparently tailing off a bit at the moment.
Also, lots of towns (and not necessarily just small places) don’t have an independent record store, whether actually in town or not, so if HMV does go then there are lots of places where there simply won’t be anywhere to physically buy records.
While I agree with the vast majority of comments above, I’d still be a bit sorry to see HMV vanish. At least the high street has a music (to some extent) retailer and like some of the other people here I used to enjoy visiting it. 20 years ago maybe. It’s not a pleasant experience in their branches but a month ago I wandered into the Trafford Centre’s HMV and the song playing was PiL’s This Is Not A Love Song’. It’s corpse twitched a bit at that point.
It’s still only six or seven years ago that I used to be in HMV all the time actually. Nevertheless, I just can’t really summon a shred of affection for the place, nor any real sadness if it goes to the wall. It would be nice to see Fopp continue to exist, particularly if it can remain true to its original character.
There are only two places now in Dundee (4th largest city in Scotland, mind) where you can ‘buy music’ – HMV & Grouchos.
Grouchos only sells second hand vinyl & CDs. HMV sells CDs (& headphones, & iPad docks etc).
Grouchos may have vaguely new releases if the guy from Clash Magazine has gone in to sell some of his big pile of promo CDs.
They do have a small “local” music section, but other than that no band is getting any money from what they sell.
Dundee HMV is so small that they only sell top 40 stuff. I haven’t bought anything in HMV in the 5 years I’ve lived near Dundee.
It’s dire. It’s dire because I used to like gambling a small bit of cash on 7″s that I like the cover or had heard good things about the band. I have had good discoveries that way. Now if you want a 7″ over the net, it usually comes in a 4-6 quid when postage is included. The internet browser has meant the death of browsing (**clever phrasing, huh?**) and I’m still wondering if this is a good or bad thing.
On one hand I haven’t bought a bad LP for ages (listen online, evaluate, buy or don’t buy) but on the other hand my 7″ collection hasn’t grown since about 2008.
I’ve never been interested in mp3s, and have never bought any. Vinyl albums (with or without mp3s or CDs included are fine & dandy with me, though the latter means I can listen in my car without tons of skipping.)
What worries me at the moment are the current Spotify ads that pop up between every few songs that say “With Spotify, you never need to buy music again”…and I think we all know why this will never, ever be a good thing….
The thing is, I don’t really know what to mourn in this case.
Not buying music is not quite the same as not paying for music, and I doubt that people who care about this shit are ever likely to turn their backs on it.
But as you kind of suggest, caring about music as an isolated art form is quite plausibly becoming a little old-fashioned. I don’t know if it is, but I guess it’s quite possible.
And as to buying physical products from shops, well for all I love doing it, I can’t honestly say that it feels like the kind of way to spend one’s time that will be here forever. I don’t know exactly why going into a shop to buy music is particularly thought of as something we need to preserve. I love doing it of course, but we need to be wary of assuming that our own pleasures necessarily translate to anyone else, particularly a whole new generation.
The difficulty, particularly in transitional times like this, is guessing which habits are on the way out forever, and what habits, for all they may seem under threat, are pretty much part of human nature – such as the urge to surround ourselves with physical artifacts which make some sort of statement to the world about who we are, which is kind of what is happening when we hoard books, music, knick-knacks, art, and almost anything else.
I go to HMV once a month to spend vouchers I get through my work. It’s a sad afternoon spent trying to find £50 worth of music I want to purchase from them. Interestingly though I was speaking with a staff member in the Argyle Street branch last week who told me that the shop were going to be massively expanding their vinyl selection.
Still be downstairs at the back no doubt…
Yes, I’d heard the same thing actually. Makes you wonder if vinyl junkies would rather spend their money direct with the bands/labels, at independent shops or at HMV, no matter how good their selection is.