I spent 13 years of my life at HMV, from 1998 to 2011. I saw the changes it made and the growth of the business and the beginning of what may be the end. Let's hope not.
Although this may come across as a slightly biased & rose-tinted view of the company, I'd like to get several points across and put a few things straight about what people have often complained about HMV over the years.
It may physically cost 10p to manufacture a CD or a DVD, but it costs a lot more than 10p for time in the studio, working on a film, editing an album, buying instruments, paying actors, crew, musicians, engineers, production staff.. I could go on. Yes in the good times HMV could get away with charging £16 for a back catalogue album on CD. In those days (the late 90s) it was the only place you could buy certain albums, especially in a small town as there was no other option. It seems a lot of money now, but even then new releases were often £12.99 or above. Even these days with more and more downloads, artists actually earn more money from physical sales than they do from digital.
Until supermarkets started selling albums at a loss from the early noughties onwards I don't think HMV or any of its competitors were seen as particularly expensive. Supermarkets selling CDs cheaply at pretty much the cost price is seen as a way of bringing customers into their store to buy food with higher margins. It also can bring up the total value the customer spends by another £10 or so. I was working in an HMV store when this started happening and remember a customer asking me why we were £2 more than Asda on a CD she wanted. I tried to explain that it wasn't ASDA's core business like it was for us, plus they make more money on bread & milk than they do on CDs! The margins on CDs & DVDs in those days were still much lower than that of clothing or food. You never see people complaining that Topshop sell dresses for £50 that cost £9 to make, which is far truer than the HMV '10p' statement!
If HMV does disappear it won't be good news for Independent shops.
HMV have a lot of shops. HMV have enough shops for small labels to decide whether to physically manufacture an album or not. Although some independents are doing all right for themselves, they may not have such a broad range of product to order as they may only want to order 2 or 3 copies. HMV will order 200 to 300! A label is more likely to get 500 copies of an album manufactured for HMV & independents as it will be commercially viable. The fewer copies are produced, the higher the cost price for the retailer and the less likely they are to order more than one copy as customers won't pay £15 for an album!
I'm also mainly talking about independent music shops. Where does one go to browse film on DVD & Blu-ray if not HMV or a soul-less supermarket? There aren't really independent film shops like there are for music. Film fans as well as music fans like to browse and complete collections as stated in a recent article on the Empire magazine blog.
You cannot browse or discover things online you didn't know about like you can in a shop.
Looking for music online isn't the pleasurable experience that it is flicking through racks in a music store. It just isn't. Online stores are great for when you know exactly what you want, but what music or film fan doesn't like seeing 'what's out' or buying something they like the look of and taking a risk on? The beauty of a physical shop, no matter what it sells, is that you don't always come out with what you intentioned to buy!
Here's an example. I volunteer every Saturday in an Oxfam shop and last weekend I put some music on the stereo. I picked out the Zero 7 album from 2001 that I loved at the time and hadn't heard in a while. Half an hour later a customer asked to buy the CD as well as some clothes she'd been trying on as she'd heard it whilst in the shop. She had never heard of Zero 7 and hadn't come into Oxfam intending to buy a CD. I couldn't tell you how many times I'd sold a CD in an HMV because the album was playing in the shop. That experience cannot be replicated online.
Independent shops can be intimidating, especially for women. There I've said it. As a female music fan I have never felt that comfortable in an Indie shop. I've always felt like I had to prove myself or buy something cool. As a teenager I could go to HMV or Virgin and not feel intimidated. The Indie music store is still very man-centric and I think it always will be mainly because men collect more music than women do.
If HMV goes, prices for CDs & DVDs will sky rocket. How do I know this? Without having the competition to undercut, Amazon will charge what they like for new releases, especially now Play.com is not longer selling new product. Supermarkets will do the same, so you can say goodbye to your £8 new releases!
HMV is much more than a Music retailer. Not only does it sell film & computer games, but it sells more headphones than any other retailer. Forgot your headphones before a long journey? Pick a pair up in your local HMV - not any more!
And finally....HMV isn't just a shop. Most people of my generation and before can remember the first record they bought and where. It's a right of passage. What you buy in a store like HMV identifies who you are. I remember going into HMV & Virgin every Monday after school to check out the new releases to spend my recently earned babysitting money on. It was a shop you could spend ages in browsing without getting bothered. How many people have as much of a passion for Marks & Spencer or ASDA like they do for HMV?!
OK I'm getting all sentimental now. Times have changed but this shouldn't be the end. I would never have worked in HMV if I wasn't passionate about the products and I can pretty much say that's the same for all the employees & ex-employees I worked with and am still friends with. HMV did not embrace change when they should have, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. When you're already doing well, why would you need to change anything? It was perhaps an arrogant attitude to have which the company are now paying for.
I really really hope this isn't it for HMV. There are many great people with so much passion working for HMV and they are the backbone of what could still be great. I'm keeping everything crossed for you all.
