Hmv In Decline

there is more to come, people are downloading more music now than buying cd's or dvd's , the first conclusion to this is that retailers and suppliers were to greedy in the mark up of such a cheap software to produce, reap what you saw, ?
 
2 HMV stores near me (Bristol and Bath). Bath has a very poor stock of CDs although the DVD selection is pretty decent. The larger Bristol store has a greater range of CDs available and I recently spent £65 in there on 5 CDs that I couldn't find in Bath - got home and checked Amazon where I could have saved myself nearly £20. No wonder they are going under - chart CDs are not badly priced at £7-8 but if you want anything that wasn't produced by a Boy Band in the past 12 months then you are looking at £14-15 which is far beyond what I am willing to pay for a CD.

Case in point - John Foxx complete Cathedral Oceans (3CD set), saw in HMW for £28.99, purchased from Amazon for £13.

RIP HMV, your day is done.
 
HMV like many others had it fantastic when there was little choice. Now there is vast choice. Live with it. I buy my new vinyl and CD's from Amazon and I won't stop.
 
Haselsh1 said:
HMV like many others had it fantastic when there was little choice. Now there is vast choice. Live with it. I buy my new vinyl and CD's from Amazon and I won't stop.
Click to expand...


I'm afraid thats' just it.

Stuff moves, fashion and trends change.

I'm very pleased to here amazon are still doing Cd's AND vinyl.

So, crummy down loads haven't taken over completely then.
 
Seems a shame really. The HMV in Yeovil has a really crap CD selection so I don't go there very often and anyway like to avoid going into town in general, but last time I did I thought the prices were generally pretty good.

Hopefully HMV's problems may help out the few independants still struggling on.

CD sales still outstrip downloads don't they?
 
Just to add something else to this thread:
I never really liked HMV stores because for me, they sum up everything I don't like about shopping for music related items. There used to be however a store up here in York called 'Track Records' that I absolutely loved. This shop would stock vinyl, CD's and anything band related and was bloody awesome but alas, a bit like HMV, it went down the pan. I shall not be sorry to see HMV go but I am seriously disappointed when classic shops cease to exist.
I definitely know where I prefer to shop.
 
la toilette said:
CD sales still outstrip downloads don't they?
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Not any more. The US music market figures are first to arrive, UK ones arrive in a month or so.

Total sales of physical media in the US in 2010: 326.2m
Total downloads in the US in 2010: 1.17bn

Sales of CD are down massively (Physical media sales topped 943m in 2000 and have been falling ever since) and the numbers are down so much that Sony announced it is to close its CD manufacturing plant in March, moving production to a far smaller factory dedicated to producing both CD and DVD.

The music business felt last year was the year CD died. This year is they year they bury it.
 
Fnuckle said:
Not any more. The US music market figures are first to arrive, UK ones arrive in a month or so.

Total sales of physical media in the US in 2010: 326.2m
Total downloads in the US in 2010: 1.17bn

Sales of CD are down massively (Physical media sales topped 943m in 2000 and have been falling ever since) and the numbers are down so much that Sony announced it is to close its CD manufacturing plant in March, moving production to a far smaller factory dedicated to producing both CD and DVD.

The music business felt last year was the year CD died. This year is they year they bury it.
Click to expand...

Hi Fnuckle,

You have got it slightly wrong. The download figure you have quoted is for single tracks and not albums.

The cd album figure you have quoted is for cds & download albums.

US download albums sold 86.3m, up by 13%. CD albums are down by 12.7%.

UK cd album sales are down by 12.4% to 98.5m.

Download albums in the UK were 21m last year, up on the previous year.

Total UK album sales are down from 128.9m in 2009 to 119.9m in 2010.

Single track downloads are up to 161.8m sold in 2010.

So download singles & albums are up but cd albums are down.

SCIDB
 
SCIDB said:
Hi Fnuckle,

You have got it slightly wrong. The download figure you have quoted is for single tracks and not albums.

The cd album figure you have quoted is for cds & download albums.

US download albums sold 86.3m, up by 13%. CD albums are down by 12.7%.

UK cd album sales are down by 12.4% to 98.5m.

Download albums in the UK were 21m last year, up on the previous year.

Total UK album sales are down from 128.9m in 2009 to 119.9m in 2010.

Single track downloads are up to 161.8m sold in 2010.

So download singles & albums are up but cd albums are down.

SCIDB
Click to expand...

This describes an even bigger problem for the music biz. Those who download tend to download tracks rather than albums. The download album sales are not large enough to act as replacement to CD album sales.
 
I wont buy cd's anymore waste of time, unless its something I really want to play on my cd player .. I buy more vinyl new an old than cd !
 
nando said:
there is more to come, people are downloading more music now than buying cd's or dvd's , the first conclusion to this is that retailers and suppliers were to greedy in the mark up of such a cheap software to produce, reap what you saw, ?
Click to expand...

I was, now I prefer to get a CD, rip it with EAC to FLAC then stick the disk in a wallet for use in the car. Coincidentally, just brought some CDs from HMV this afternnoon, Amazon/Play are usually cheap so I order off the internet but wandering round the stop today I found a lot of it is priced very competitively, for example everything I brought today was within pennies of the best price I could find on Amazon.
 
part of the reason that hmv are facing problems is that they chose to invest in live music venues and it hasnt really worked out they way they wanted it to.
they also make life annoying for customers.....

last year i followed a link from the underworld website to purchase a ticket for the 'barking' album launch gig and also the ltd edt of that album. i got the confirmation email with instructions as to what i should be recieving and when.

however what they didnt tell me, even after registering with their hmv live website is that they dont integrate their businesses. so after many attempts at trying to logon at hmv in order to redeem my evoucher and getting the repeated message your details do not exist (why not i have already registered) cue numerous emails and phonecalls between me and hmv someone finally put me in the picture...you had to register on both sites!
it maybe a minor issue but its things like that that really put me off giving companies any money full stop.

it is true that physical music sales are down, but overall unit sales are up, which is just a reflection of new technology allowing the customer more choice. if theres only 4 out of the 7 tracks that you like on the album and you have the option to buy those individually as opposed to paying for the whole album then thats what you going to do, it is a bit of a no brainer. although i would like to see more places offering the flac format

personally i very very rarely buy from places like hmv anymore and thats because i am on a very low income and simply cannot afford 7-14 quid on an album. my music is acquired via legit downloads or p2p or finding the album cheap on ebay.
i will however pay for a gig ticket and fork out for a tshirts at gigs, so artists do benefit from my cash somewhere along the the line and all the while that i breathe that wont change
 
Yup, totally agree with most of the views here...HMV don't help themselves....lost count of the times I've gone in looking for a CD and come out disappointed....I've hovered up all the 2 for a tenner combos....and now there is just new overpriced stuff...which you can get cheaper online....pity, cause I do like to wander round and browse..wish I had a local Fopp !
 

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