HMV 3434 Responses

Last post: 3 months, 2 weeks ago | Thread started: Jan 15, 13, 4:44 a.m.

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• Ianbolton

  So, the great British music store is going into administration. Does anyone care? Did they have a hand in killing the local independent record shops? Or was it just a failing in the music industry? Or was it me, mindlessly pirating that album the other month?

  Jan 15, 13, 4:44 a.m. – Permalink

• goldieboy

  Yes, I'll miss the 3 for £10 deals etc.
  Yes, they helped in the demise of the independent stores.
  Yes, you also helped ;)

  

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  Dog-earJan 15, 13, 4:51 a.m. – Permalink

• detritus

  They've had 10 years to get their shit together and evolve their business, so I've not got a heck of a lot of sympathy.

  Branson was clever to sell out of Virgin Megastores when he did...

  

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  Dog-earJan 15, 13, 4:56 a.m. – Permalink

• animatedgif

  How on earth did they not manage to evolve? When they saw so many businesses move on or die before it finally got to them.

  

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  Dog-earJan 15, 13, 5 a.m. – Permalink

• ukit2

  Remember the days when you had to shop for music at stores that sold CDs for $16-20 a piece? These companies enjoyed a golden age, and now they are being wiped away by technological change/progress.

  • yup– monospaced1/2

    A necessary step. It was fun while it lasted.– set2/2

  

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  Dog-earJan 15, 13, 5:02 a.m. – Permalink

• BaskerviIle

  https:// width="425" height="355">

  • couldn't be more bang on– BaskerviIle1/4

    always so fucking good– animatedgif2/4

    Yes he is.
    Can't wait til he's old and angry.– mikotondria33/4

    Dude shops in my branch of Sainsbury's. He's fatter than he looks on TV.– detritus4/4

  

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  Dog-earJan 15, 13, 5:10 a.m. – Permalink

• ukit2

  

  • Surprising to see digital slump so much– qTime1/9

    It's not slumping, CD sales (and overall sales) are– ukit22/9

    Interesting how vinyl and 8 tracks pulled in almost as much in the 70s as CDs did in the early 2000s– ukit23/9

    interesting how the industry slumped in the mid 80's.... must have been the hair metal from hell
    – vaxorcist4/9

    There was a recession in the early/mid eighties.– ETM5/9

    Those were the days of cheap Compact Cassette– shaft6/9

    http://www.gratuitou…– jaylarson7/9

    Music will continue to bomb with the garbage being produced.– utopian8/9

    Most/many are just fine with Pandora. I don't have a single MP3 on my phone, not one.– formed9/9

  

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  Dog-earJan 15, 13, 5:11 a.m. – Permalink

• i_monk

  I don't know about over there, but in Canada they evolved into an every-type-of-media & some-electronics shop years ago.

  • Same in the UK– goldieboy1/2

    Yep. Larger selection of stuff not to buy.– ETM2/2

  

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  Dog-earJan 15, 13, 5:17 a.m. – Permalink

• set

  Fuck em'.

  They certainly helped kill independent record shops, who gives a shite if they have been killed by Amazon.

  Capitalism is not a sentimental sport.

  

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  Dog-earJan 15, 13, 5:20 a.m. – Permalink

• Fax_Benson

  They definitely helped kill off the independent shops where I lived. But then lots of the people from those stores went to work in HMV, which helped give it an air of indie authenticity. I think if they'd kept the focus on the niche sections, reasonably knowledgeable staff and excellent ordering service, it might have survived. .

  

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  Dog-earJan 15, 13, 5:35 a.m. – Permalink

• 23kon

  Just go to Tesco now to buy your Skull Candy fluro headphones.
  Sorted.

  

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  Dog-earJan 15, 13, 5:38 a.m. – Permalink

• qTime

  Funny how pop music on a whole is in decline now.
  Who (not the Who) were the last super band?

  It feels like music was a voice of certain generations now it just feels corporate and lame.

  • Oh god it's the Daily Mail– pig

  

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  Dog-earJan 15, 13, 5:46 a.m. – Permalink

• GeorgesII

  WHO FUCKN CARES,
  Next
  Urban outfitters

  • But where will i buy my poorly produced hipster clothing?– d_rek1/4

    Next, American Apparel– ukit22/4

    Next: Town centres,– qTime3/4

    Next, everything.– fredddddd4/4

  

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  Dog-earJan 15, 13, 5:52 a.m. – Permalink

• mikotondria3

  It's kinda obvious to anyone on the outside how and why an enterprise like this went down - the bulk of their market stopped buying the things they sold in their shops, furthermore the industry related to those products took a nose dive and the only people generating revenue weren't ever going to step foot in the stores as they were then. What's not always, explicitly evident is the organization and structure of the company itself in terms of how ideas about itself and its customers and how to effectively navigate roadblocks and change and thrive. All we see is when it's too late and they've run aground, we don't see the meetings where people who can see the iceberg are shouting upstairs to the wheelhouse to turn the ship - alas too much momentum/inertia not enough leverage or stiffness within the company to make the curve, and it all comes crashing down on the beach like a rotten wooden whale trying to walk ashore.

  

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  Dog-earJan 15, 13, 6:54 a.m. – Permalink

• vaxorcist

  I was teaching a class at an art college a few years ago, and one student said he had done a project on HMV, another student went on and on talking about the the project she had done on Centers for Disease Control, until I realized she thought that HMV was a sexually transmitted disease..... a bit awkward to deal with her confusion as more and more students figured it out before I could formulate a "teachers way" out of this confusion....

  • HMV gave me aids– GeorgesII

  

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  Dog-earJan 15, 13, 6:57 a.m. – Permalink

• Horp

  They did put a large foot on the throats of independents, but I doubt the independents would have survived until now anyway. One of the longest standing and most respected independents here in Brighton disappeared within the last 12 months... Revolver Records... and I'd wager that was a result of online rather than the two HMV stores in Brighton. Revolver's stock in trade was hugely different to HMVs.

  I hadn't been into a HMV for a few years, but went into the main Brighton branch over Christmas. I could not believe the state of the shop. The had attempted to evolve and diversify I believe (in response to earlier comments) and had given over 50% of the store racks to second hand CDs, DVDs and hardware. Ironically it felt a tiny little bit like the first days of Urban Outfitters, when it was largely second hand, and (briefly) felt like a cool new un-brand. Not a good fit for HMV though... it just smacked of desperation.

  They hacked the store into 50% jumble sale, 30% electronic gadgets and peripherals, and 20% was left for the core product of music. The music was so tightly crammed in that it largely all had to be re-classified as Pop/Rock, with a few nods here and there to Blues, Classical, Easy Listening, Jazz etc etc. Pop/Rock was the dominant category though, and the stuff they'd got listed under that heading was amusing and alarming in equal measure.

  I care that retail is dying. I don't care that HMV is dying however.

  • 20% to angry birds merchandise from what I saw– animatedgif

  

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  Dog-earJan 15, 13, 7:06 a.m. – Permalink

• Horp

  Also, the cashier's desk was lost behind badly piled mountains of really horrible cheap shit like fizzy sweets, shitty collectors sticker sets, crappy cheap magazines etc... felt like a Soweto newsagents.

  Horrible experience.

  

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  Dog-earJan 15, 13, 7:08 a.m. – Permalink

• Bluejam

  

  • i feel your pain chump– utopian

  

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  Dog-earJan 15, 13, 7:17 a.m. – Permalink

• pig

  

  • pavlov was a rca cunt– GeorgesII

  

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  Dog-earJan 15, 13, 7:33 a.m. – Permalink

• vaxorcist

  I did hear a rumour that John Lydon used to call HMV "Her Magesty's Vagina"

  • Replace 'John Lydon' with any other name and suddenly that sounds like the shittest quip ever– pig

  

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  Dog-earJan 15, 13, 7:35 a.m. – Permalink

• sine

  lazy alert...
  did hmv still record and produce, or just sell records in the modern era?

  

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  Dog-earJan 15, 13, 7:41 a.m. – Permalink