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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.
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.
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.
Unfortunately UBI hasn't had a good test to show that it works. It sounds good on paper, but in practice it hasn't shown to be practical.
What really is needed is increased Adult vocational education and training. There are still a lot of jobs, however they need skills that a lot of people do not have. That retail job that you lost may need to become a call center job, or a home health care nurse.
In many ways it is kinda unfair to load kids with the responsibility to make career choices at the age of 18. Do I go into college, trade school, military, seminary... Or just get a job and hope it works out.
At 18 these young adults are still mostly kids in their thoughts, If we had a system of continuing education a poor life choice from going into the wrong major. Wasting time digging ditches in the military, studying a trade that is obsolete, or just finding your heart into so much in your faith as you though. They can have options available for them for growth and changing the direction of their life without such a hassle.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
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.