Record giant ‘on brink of collapse’

Record giant ‘on brink of collapse’

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norman lebrecht

December 28, 2018

Sky News reports that the HMV group, Britain’s biggest record retailer, has filed notice of intention to appoint administrators, the gateway to an orderly insolvency.

Sources said that the chain, which trades from 130 shops and employs about 2,200 people, had been in talks in recent days with leading names in the recorded music industry to seek financial support from them.

Another Amazon victim.

Comments

  • Derek says:

    HMV has a huge range of DVD’S and Blue Ray films and lots of offers. Problem is that people are not buying them anymore as they have other options.

    However, HMV gave up on stocking much classical music and many other music genres years ago and lost that customer base! It was always interesting to browse and choose something.

  • Caravaggio says:

    Not just an Amazon victim but also a victim to streaming and, worse, to general disinterest.

  • Zacharias Galaviz Guerra says:

    … and the slow descent continues…

  • martain smith says:

    Indeed – and alas, not so slow!

  • FS60103 says:

    Unless you went into the Oxford Street branch or a small handful of big city stores (all long since gone) HMV ceased to be a serious classical retailer somewhere around the year 2000. Dying industry sadly – how can it possibly compete with online shopping in a specialist market?

  • aj says:

    There is no victim ….it is evolution plain and simple.You
    cannot forever live in the past.

  • M McAlpine says:

    I went in our local HMV (a city store) the other day and there was little of interest to the classical music buyer. When you can get second hand CDs for very little and DVDs even cheaper from charity shops then what is there left for them?

  • Nick2 says:

    HMV had stores in other parts of the world. I believe the last ones were in Singapore and Hong Kong but it has already been announced that the Hong Kong stores are closing.

    Interestingly two of the largest and best stocked record stores anywhere with huge classical sections of CDs and DVDs are the branches of Tower Records in Shinjuku and Shibuya in Tokyo. So retail is not yet dead everywhere.

  • the pig says:

    They all deserve to die. When they made millions they did nothing for us artists or recording engineers, inc that corrupt idiot that runs Virgin everything. Now they start moaning and crying cos, they didn’t follow media evolution but instead made law suits every 5 mins like RIAA against NAPSTER.
    They deserve everything that’s coming to them and more. I hope they all go to the wall.

  • Stuard Yojng says:

    Perhaps the coming resurgence of interest in high-quality repressings of 78 rpm shellac discs will save this company?

  • Sharon says:

    Just a shame for all the laid off employees, many of whom are probably aspiring musicians

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