HMV
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- qTime0
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.
- Ianbolton0
@webazoot. I don't think it's about the vast amounts of music they sell, you can get all that online. I think it's more about service, personality and promoting something they believe in. All that is lacking, and is something that should go hand-in-hand in the music industry today. New artists only exist because of word of mouth and the internet. If you can embrace that, then you can build a business structure similar to Rough Trade I guess. For everything else that's disposable and/or mainstream there's Amazon or iTunes. (or torrents).
- webazoot0
Not bought anything in a HMV in about ten years and don't even think about going into one. Not really been about selling a wide range of music for a long time, more about selling chart merchandise, computer games, DVDs and electronics. And doing none of that well. If they have any chance of recovering they need to look at what they want to do and do that thing well (Be nice if they went back to stocking a wide range of music again, if nothing else theres not a lot of competition left now.)
- Ianbolton0
I'd hate to see independents totally die out. HMV, to some extent, killed the local record shop back home in the small town of Scunthorpe. That was more down to Scunthorpe being a town with shit music taste! I do think there will always be a vibrant independent music scene. Those who sit there and say all new music is shit, obviously don't look hard enough. I prefer buying my music at gigs as I see the artist gets the cash.
So yeah, generally I don't really give a fuck about HMV. They've bought too heavily into a failing commercialised version of a creative industry, therefore sold themselves out. Stay small. Stay true. Stay alive!
- sine0
lazy alert...
did hmv still record and produce, or just sell records in the modern era?
- Horp0
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.
- mikotondria30
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.
- 23kon0
Just go to Tesco now to buy your Skull Candy fluro headphones.
Sorted.
- Fax_Benson0
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. .
- set0
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.
- animatedgif0
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.
- detritus0
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...
- goldieboy0
Yes, I'll miss the 3 for £10 deals etc.
Yes, they helped in the demise of the independent stores.
Yes, you also helped ;)