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Old 28th Dec 2018, 2:02 pm   #1
electronicskip
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Default HMV in administration.

Reading the news today reveals another great name (HMV) will soon disappear from the high street as administrators are being appointed.

They were rescued a few years ago by Hilco but the writing looks to be on the wall this time for good unless they find a buyer.

I guess a lot of us own HMV Branded electrical goods and also vinyl records but its still a terrible shame to see the name disappear finally from the high street .

I still use HMV to buy physical CDs/DVDs and only use the internet to buy second hand ones.
I really hope someone saves them before its too late.
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Old 28th Dec 2018, 2:13 pm   #2
Ted Kendall
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Default Re: HMV in administration.

Trouble is, what you need is footfall - and there isn't enough of that any more.
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Old 28th Dec 2018, 2:26 pm   #3
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Default Re: HMV in administration.

Hopefully the Fopp record shops will survive again but I'm not confident [they were linked in originally but I'm not sure who it is now, maybe HMV ?]. As a specialist outlet offering lots of low price stock, they are not in the same market as the big retailers but who knows. It would be a bit of a disaster if they went as well.

I think there's only four Fopp outlets nationally I've got to know a couple of the staff in Manchester [down the side road off Market Street with Tesco Express on the corner]. Some of their "footfall" is not welcome ie fairly obvious scallies trying to steal stuff that is already very cheap. It adds insult to injury really!

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Old 28th Dec 2018, 2:37 pm   #4
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Default Re: HMV in administration.

They will probably go as the tallow candle makers did. Just 'progress' fired by the continual obsession for 'upgrades'.[?]
It must not be forgotten that Hayes manufactured HMV domestic appliances including television and radio ceased in the mid 1950's. I would hate to see the name vanish but so did all the others..J.
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Old 28th Dec 2018, 2:57 pm   #5
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Default Re: HMV in administration.

Who's going to feed his 'Little Nipper' now ...... ? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Old 28th Dec 2018, 3:03 pm   #6
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Default Re: HMV in administration.

That's despite having the best part of a third of all UK physical music sales, which retailer wouldn't have envied that once upon a time!
Quick factoid, originally set up by Edward Elgar in 1921, shame if it doesn't make it's centenary.
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Old 28th Dec 2018, 3:24 pm   #7
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Default Re: HMV in administration.

Quote:
Originally Posted by AC/HL View Post
...originally set up by Edward Elgar in 1921...
I'm not sure he had much more to do with it than ceremonially opening their first record shop (and of course conducting many recordings for HMV). The Gramophone Company itself was founded in 1898, so at least its centenary has been comfortably passed, as has that of the HMV label which first appeared a little later.

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Old 28th Dec 2018, 3:37 pm   #8
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Default Re: HMV in administration.

Elgar was HMVs star artist at the time which is why he was asked to open the first HMV record shop.

HMV record shops ceased to be part of EMI some years ago but I imagine the HMV records trademark was still owned by EMI - now Sony.
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Old 28th Dec 2018, 3:37 pm   #9
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Default Re: HMV in administration.

The news article was a bit vague, looks like it was about the shops, rather than the brand!
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Old 28th Dec 2018, 5:18 pm   #10
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Default HMV

I heard on the news that the grand old name (or such as remains using said grand old name) has gone bust again.

The golden memories of some nice old equipment are tempered by how we were all mercilessly milked by the pricing of LPs and CDs. Does the net result leave me with a bit of sympathy? Yes, just a bit.

Ah, gold writing on a deep red label, and the dog whizzing round at 78rpm... It seemed so classy.

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Old 28th Dec 2018, 5:48 pm   #11
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Default Re: HMV in administration.

Although the term, 'His master's voice,' was a good sales logo back in the good ol'
days, I'm afraid that in today's world it's too old fashion.
Nipper listening down a horn doesn't fit in anymore.
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Old 28th Dec 2018, 5:57 pm   #12
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Default Re: HMV in administration.

There is a Fopp Record Shop in Gloucester Green, Oxford, near the Bus Station. I've bought a couple of things from there, though it was a while ago. The HMV store in the city closed when the company went into administration the first time. Oddly enough the Banbury HMV store is still trading, or at least it was the last time I was there.
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Old 28th Dec 2018, 6:16 pm   #13
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Default Re: HMV in administration.

Perhaps it is better that the HMV brand is only part of history instead of being applied to products with which it has little or no relevance.

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Old 28th Dec 2018, 6:25 pm   #14
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Default Re: HMV in administration.

While some see it as sad, I see it as inevitable. They went bust around 2011, and somehow managed to get renewed financing to come back in a slimmed-down form. Blockbuster, QVC, GAME, Grainger Games, Our Price, Virgin Megastores had all exited the market so I guess someone saw HMV as having a future as the last-man-standing-in-the-game.


I hadn't realised that Fopp still existed; last one I remember going into was the Nottingham branch some time around 2001 (they were not far from "Page 45", the really-rather-good comic-shop).


To be brutally honest these days nobody under-40 buys physical media; downloads and streaming made the HMV model unsustainable when everyone's subscribed to Steam, Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, Amazon, Apple etc. (or where oldtimers like me still download our fansubbed anime via BitTorrent).

HMV became irrelevant, just as roving bands of traveling musicians, printers of sheet-music and makers of player-piano-rolls did in times-past.

I hope someone's left behind to feed the little dog.
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Old 28th Dec 2018, 6:29 pm   #15
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Default Re: HMV in administration.

Disaster....if the only HMV record shop in Bromley closes its doors! It's the only record shop I know that has all music tastes and stocks a huge range of prog rock and heavy rock from the 70's, 60's, 80's and all the latest stuff as well. They are selling lots of back-catalogue re-issues on vinyl. I have spent far too much money and time in there.........
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Old 28th Dec 2018, 9:59 pm   #16
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Default Re: HMV in administration.

Are there any HMV enthusiasts out there ? Perhaps a former employee who has maintained contacts ? If there is an archive somewhere at their HQ, I hope to God that it can be rescued and put to good use amongst the vintage radio fraternity.

Regards, David
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Old 29th Dec 2018, 5:18 am   #17
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Default Re: HMV in administration.

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Simpson View Post
Are there any HMV enthusiasts out there ? Perhaps a former employee who has maintained contacts ? If there is an archive somewhere at their HQ, I hope to God that it can be rescued and put to good use amongst the vintage radio fraternity.

Regards, David
I would have imagined that anything like that might have disappeared from Head office in the last Administrative save?
Hopefully I am wrong as it would be great if anything of historical interest could be saved.
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Old 29th Dec 2018, 10:02 am   #18
dglcomp
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Default Re: HMV in administration.

Another thing to consider is that a lot of artists are going towards selling physical media through their own methods, i.e. pledge music/own website. Having the advantage of the artists (hopefully) getting a bigger share of the sale, some are even crowd funding albums and tours.
This is being accelerated by companies such as Kobalt label services that allow artists to have their own label, therefore, the whole process can be controlled by the artist, which in the modern world of music retail can be necessary to make any money.

And.. I am under 40 and pretty much only buy physical media, primarily CD's but the odd record here and there.
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Old 29th Dec 2018, 11:04 am   #19
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Default Re: HMV in administration.

Quote:
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...a lot of artists are going towards selling physical media through their own methods, i.e. pledge music/own website...
Yes: I wonder how much all these completely or in part independent sales amount to relative to the size of the "music industry", and to what extent if any they find their way into the figures. I'm pushing sixty, will never have any interest in streaming and only buy downloads as a last resort. I make monthly payments to a musician and a band, which helps them make ends meet and in return their latest work comes to me as they produce it. Outside of those, various individual pre-orders and pledge campaigns, plus purchases at gigs, must amount to well over half my recorded music expenditure lately.

I'll admit to not having set foot in a record shop in, oh, probably ten years: I remember them largely as places of frustration which usually didn't have what I was looking for and would take often six or eight weeks to get it were I to place an order, if it ever arrived at all. Most likely I'll break my fast by visiting, possibly even regularly, one or two shops in Norfolk which appear well stocked with second-hand LPs, once we've settled in there and I've easy access at home to at least one turntable. Clearly, though, the market for physical media has been in fierce decline as well as becoming more various, CD sales in the USA are a tenth of what they were at their peak and I can't imagine that's very different here, and the days of the High Street chain are pretty much over. Unless, that is, something of the sort can emerge on a model I heard proposed on the radio the other day, somewhat emulating Apple, where shops forgo actually having much if any stock to sell, and reinvent themselves as social hubs and purveyors of Experiences. Something like that...

Paul
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Old 29th Dec 2018, 12:33 pm   #20
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Default Re: HMV in administration.

I don’t think their are any shops like HMV, or any record shops near where I live. The nearest HMV stores closed down in the last failure.
It means a trip to Manchester to find record shops and HMV. Since the reorganisation of public transport in the area what was once a 45 minute journey is now an hour and a half so trips to Manchester are few a far between.

Supermarkets stock CD’s but a very restricted choice so those are no good to me. I buy DVD’s occasionally but do it online, a 3 hour return journey for something that may not be in stock is too much for me.

Most of my music listening is from the radio.
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