Slashdot Mirror
HMV, One of UK's Largest Retailers of CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays, Calls in Administrators For Second Time in Six Years (bbc.com)
Retron shares a report: Music retailer HMV has confirmed it is calling in KPMG as administrators. The move, the second in six years, involves 2,200 staff at 125 stores. Owners Hilco, which took the company out of its first administration in 2013, blamed a "tsunami" of retail challenges, including business rate levels and the move to digital. It said the stores would continue to trade while negotiations were held with major suppliers and it looked for buyers. Paul McGowan, executive chairman of HMV and its owner Hilco Capital, said: "Even an exceptionally well-run and much-loved business such as HMV cannot withstand the tsunami of challenges facing UK retailers over the last 12 months on top of such a dramatic change in consumer behaviour in the entertainment market."
He pointed out HMV sold 31% of all physical music in the UK in 2018 and 23% of all DVDs and Blu-rays, with its market share growing month by month throughout the year. But he added that the industry consensus was that the market would fall by another 17% during 2019 and therefore it would not be possible to continue to trade the business. Holders of gift vouchers are being advised to consider spending them sooner rather than later.
He pointed out HMV sold 31% of all physical music in the UK in 2018 and 23% of all DVDs and Blu-rays, with its market share growing month by month throughout the year. But he added that the industry consensus was that the market would fall by another 17% during 2019 and therefore it would not be possible to continue to trade the business. Holders of gift vouchers are being advised to consider spending them sooner rather than later.
The ironic thing with this story is that 13 years ago, before Spotify and the like, HMV offered digital downloads (as did many other shops, like Tesco and Virgin Records). The downloads were clunky, required Windows Media Player and if you stopped paying the monthly subscription you lost access to the downloads entirely - they'd just redirect you to a login screen if you tried playing them. I only lasted two months as a subscriber back in the day as I realised I'd be stuck paying £10/month forever just to keep access to the tracks I'd downloaded. I still have the (now useless) WMA files as a souvenir!
The modern way of downloading music to keep (MP3s via Amazon, for example), is much better, as the music doesn't expire.
They describe Hilco as a restructuring company, this is how that "restructuring" works...
Then sit back ad see what happens, in the unlikely event the business succeeds it can be sold at a further profit to a gullible buyer. If as is more likely the business fails walk away with a big bonus and leave the banks and investors with the loss.
In American English, what's "calling in administrators"? This seems like a uniquely British term. Is it like declaring bankruptcy?
It is essentially the same as Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Administrators are appointed to determine either a rescue plan or to liquidate the assets and shut down the company.
Their Market share is increasing. But their profits are down. They are Selling CDs, DVDs and Blue rays.
There is a general decline (for good or for bad) in demand of physical digital media, as we are shifting over to streaming services.
So a lot of companies who sold this stuff has stopped doing such, so their market share is increasing in products that less people want to buy.
Back over a 100 years ago. many companies can be making buggy whips, each one being a large growing industry. Each one would have a fraction of the market share.
Today there may be a mom and pop shop that makes buggy whips that can meet the world demand. Just because there isn't that much demand.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
UK high street is dead. Even the huge clothing stores are struggling or being sold off.
Other countries aren't far behind.
You can accept it, or you can adjust your life to suit.
Another 20 years, you'll have a few huge supermarkets offering virtually everything (usually after inviting big brands into their stores to gain custom and habitualising people to using them, then stripping them for their own in-store brand... Specsavers in your local ASDA? Give it a year), high streets sold off for housing, and everything online.
Feel grateful - you wouldn't have a public mail service (it'd be privatised as it is in some parts of London already by TNT), your high street is almost certainly filled with betting shops instead (the only people making money enough to pay the rent) and charity shops.
High street is dead. Get over it. You're several decades and several major retailers too late to do anything much about it. Order your physical media on a specialist site online. Amazon will almost certainly out-price them eventually but if they don't, you'll still get your goods. Just posted to you. Via Royal Mail which is only alive nowadays because of Amazon.
If only there was like a website or something, where you could type words and phrases you don't know the meanings of and it would sort of tell you and all that.
That'd be just dreamy.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=calling+i...
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
So if this is "exceptionally well-run", what do you call it if the market changes were not just anticipated a bit better than this, but also an alternative busines strategy started?
Agreed. High street, at best, has to become more like a showroom for stuff, fronting for a big online business.
I was working for an electrical store in '96 when I had a secondment to the head office. I happened to bump in to the Chief Exec and had a chat, I told him he should look at this internet thingy and his reply was "We don't see the internet as a big part of our strategy".
These idiots can be so short sighted it fucking hurts to see them taking home such large salaries.
I also remember seeing a Microsoft presentation when they were lauding Encarta, the presenter said something along the lines of "We took our idea to Britannica, but they were afraid of cannibalising their book sales. We said 'if you dont cannibalise them, someone else will' and here we are with Encarta the biggest Encyclopaedia in the world". They obviously didn't see the big Wiki coming but the sentiment was right.
FML, people are stupid.
If medicine were ever perfected, we'd all be the same.
HMV barely changed its model from the last time it went bankrupt. It sells a few physical items like speakers, T-shirts, posters, figures etc. but its main business is still DVDs, CDs and console games and unsurprisingly these aren't selling as well as they once did.
But Apple was only able to do so after many years of lobbying after having to accept DRM or they would be told to fuck off by the labels.
Why is this modded Funny instead of insightful? It's a perfect explanation.
a place where you could go and find lots of electronic music that you wanted but didn't buy because of the "Import Sticker" and $50+ price tag lol. Then Napster happened although FTP and upload/download shares were common between the IRC nerds.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
I threw out the optical drives from my computers (never any others) years ago and never missed them.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I had fond memories of HMV in the 90's/early 2000's before downloads/streaming took over. It was the go-to place to get new CD single releases and the UK prices were amazing back then (99p for 4 tracks - often with 3 non-album new songs - or 99p for 8 remixes of a track).
UK CD singles were such good value that the record industry decided to impose more and more draconian rules to ensure that they'd ultimately die off. Examples included raising the typical prices several times (yes, there were 1-track 3.99 pounds CD singles at the end!), and limiting the number of tracks (so you could end up with *3* discs for a single release e.g. Annie Lennox's "Cold", which could cost 3.99 pounds each - ridiculous).
HMV were never the cheapest, so I used to mainly buy CD albums when they were on sale there. Once Amazon UK started selling CDs and DVDs, the writing really was on the wall for HMV. I've still bought the odd thing (on sale) at HMV Online in the past few years, but Amazon UK has almost entirely replaced HMV in most UK shopper's eyes I suspect.
What special power did they have over any other music seller?
A three-letter brand. Just as there had been the anarcho-punk slogan "DIY not EMI", there could have been "HMV not DRM".
Seriously? KPMG are one of the big 4 accountancy and audit firms in the world. The only way that I can see that this post isn't just for the sake of calling out the headline is if you didn't know administration was a form of bankruptcy protection, but, its a fairly known international term at that.
First sentence should end in a question mark. The second isn't actually a sentence, since it has no finite verb in the main clause. Third one has commas in random places, plus names of countries and words derived from them should be capitalized.
You're hardly in a position to pontificate about good writing.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
This year, streaming music surpassed the revenue of CD's, it's surprising HMV held on for so long. Aside from job losses, there is a bright side to this. HMV and its ilk were responsible, indirectly, for putting thousands of small record shops out of business. We ended up with a narrow selection of choice, dictated by record labels. Specialist record shops are on the rise again, serving niche markets and online music has never been stronger - I'm not just talking about the obvious players, there's also services like Bandcamp and numerous online radio stations. Whilst it's still exceptionally difficult to make a living making music, there are more opportunities for artists to make a decent living. Artists that don't expect to be mega-stars making millions, but rather, to make an honest buck doing what they love. HMV never supported artists such as this, but independent record stores and online services do, so arguably, this is a good thing. Good riddance HMV, but good luck to those out of a job - that part of it sucks.
Well you can go to discogs and buy pretty much any vinyl, cd / cassette in physical form if thats what you need.
How many shops have they got in the UK exactly?
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I happened to bump in to the Chief Exec and had a chat
Sounds legit.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Real music is live music. Live musicians make much less than they did before all the ripoffs of recording radio and tv took over.
Yes, I too prefer popping down to my local concert venue when I want a bit of background music as I'm doing the ironing on a Sunday afternoon.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Maybe not in your world. I deal with C-level staff regularly.
If medicine were ever perfected, we'd all be the same.