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HMV

Started by king_tubby, December 29, 2018, 08:18:04 PM

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king_tubby

HMV
Dreadful article by some Guardian hack here:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/28/hmv-music-high-street-chains-record-shops


QuoteHMV was always, even its heyday, the first port of call for beginners and general music consumers, where in more innocent times music as a physical artefact for novices was purchased. You wouldn't expect to find knowledgeable advice (although had you done so, it was always available).

Bullshit. In its heyday the Leeds HMV had huge jazz/world/country/soundtrack/classical etc sections, the Nottingham store I visited in my teens was chock full of the NME indie I liked then.

QuoteSpecialist, boutique record shops were often (and can still be) intimidating: my earliest purchase was as a child of 11, wading undaunted through a gaggle of sneering blokes to buy Bowie's Pin Ups in a now defunct shop in my home town of Swindon.

Congratulations you bought a number one chart album of cover versions by a nonce in an independent record shop. Do you want a medal?

BlodwynPig

Twerp was into Keane for 10 years

Quote from: king_tubby on December 29, 2018, 08:18:04 PM


Congratulations you bought a number one chart album of cover versions by a nonce in an independent record shop. Do you want a medal?

Sorry?

thraxx

For those who still buy their records in HMV: don't worry petrol stations do CDs now.

king_tubby

Lori Mattix, Sable Starr, look them up. But that's not important right now.

QuoteHMV never became a honeypot for crate diggers: those obsessives found riffling through piles of rare old vinyl

No, HMV wasn't a second hand record shop.

QuoteFopp is better stocked, as are small outlets such as the excellent Piccadilly Records in Manchester.

Last time I was in Piccadilly Records a couple of months back it'd cut way back on the range offered - the excellent doom/drone/noise section was no more, for one.

rue the polywhirl

Bowie not really one of them ... 'n' folk even considering his alleged hot date with Lori.

Article is pretty full of it considering that with any justice Guardian will be heading towards the same way as HMV soon. Irresponsible of them to publish even more bilge like that. Thoughts and prayers with HMV.

buzby

Quote
HMV never became a honeypot for crate diggers: those obsessives found riffling through piles of rare old vinyl
I'd take issue with this. The branch in Liverpool at least was great for picking up import dance and remix 12" back in the early 90s. I also picked up a fair chunk of my KLF Communications collection there, as when they deleted their catalogue they dumped their remaining stock through The Cartel, and the HMV here had the foresight to pick loads of it up. Piles of new copies of the Pure Trance original and remix singles, copies of 1987:The JAMs 45 Edits album and Shag Times compilation all going for a couple of quid.

Sadly they couldn't keep the rent up on the megastore in Liverpool One (it's now a Foot Locker) and moved into a tiny shop down one of the alleys a couple of months ago.

purlieu

I think we'd all love some superbly stocked independents on the high street, but HMV is far, far better than no record shops at all. The bigger ones have always had a deep range of stock, and I've picked up some relatively obscure stuff in them over the years. As someone who's still into CDs, it's not that easy to buy new copies of non-chart / 'classic' albums on the high street these days, even in some cities, so it's always been a valued resource. I love browsing shelves and don't particularly enjoy buying online, so if it does disappear completely my music shopping will likely be a less enjoyable experience.

What a pointlessly petty article.
QuoteIn reality you probably hadn't been inside for years.
It's the record shop I've used most in the past few years.

QuoteGrowing nostalgic vinyl obsession will save smaller, traditional boutique shops.
Overpriced, badly pressed albums, half of which would probably be better served played gapless without flipping sides, and a range of classics and the latest hyped records. Great.
Give me a sizeable jazz and classical section for a start.

BlodwynPig

Is that journalist Edward Received Wisdom?

The Culture Bunker

I've always found Piccadilly Records in Manchester to be overpriced. Much rather spend my time in Vinyl Exchange or Fopp.

HMV here went from having two stores on the main street to a relatively small single one in the Arndale. I still have the odd eye in there, as sometimes you can pick up something for a fiver.

Fambo Number Mive

I see the comments on the article are turned off.

Sebastian Cobb

My lasting memory of HMV (mid 90's, when they primarily sold cd's) was they were regularly more expensive than Ourprice or Virgin, especially on not particularly rare non-new stuff like NWA albums.

Fopp on the otherhand were the opposite. I bagged loads of stuff like Spiritualized albums for about £3.

Last time I went to a HMV, and it was a while ago, before the vinyl revival, it was hard to tell what they were trying to push.

Fambo Number Mive

Lots of criticism of the article on Twitter, of course a lot of these people are sharing the article. I think the Guardian will continue to publish more pieces like this to get the clicks.

Nowhere Man

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on December 30, 2018, 12:01:09 AM
My lasting memory of HMV (mid 90's, when they primarily sold cd's) was they were regularly more expensive than Ourprice or Virgin, especially on not particularly rare non-new stuff like NWA albums.

Fopp on the otherhand were the opposite. I bagged loads of stuff like Spiritualized albums for about £3.

Last time I went to a HMV, and it was a while ago, before the vinyl revival, it was hard to tell what they were trying to push.

Last few years they seemed to only be bothered about flogging superhero bobbleheads, T-shirts, posters, overpriced DVD's and other silly tat. Add selling vinyl records for £20-30 a pop and it's hardly surprising consumers went elsewhere. They've ended up trying out a million different things to see what sticks, and as a result, it's hard to tell what kind of business they want to be.

Sebastian Cobb

Yeah, but by the mid-2000's they'd already consigned cd's to a tiny corner of the shop in favour of DVD's.

Nowhere Man

It's mental with the business model they have that they survived as long as they did (not counting the previous time they went bust)

Small Man Big Horse

I saw both Pulp and David Hasselhoff in the Oxford Street branch so will always have fond memories of it. The post Christmas sales were always great for picking up arthouse flicks cheap on video too, though the Virgin Megastore one was better. Either way, for nostalgia reasons I miss both even though I haven't bought anything from HMV for about twenty years, and it was a decent enough way to waste time if I was ever in the West End waiting for a film to start.

Nowhere Man

Ah Virgin Megastores, now that was a good place to shop for DVD's!

Interesting to think that CeX is probably the most successful high street retailer still doing well when it comes to selling CD/DVDs/games ect.

mojo filters

Quotenot one misty-eyed recollection involves buying the music that changed my life from HMV.

Much as I love the Grauniad and their continued good, refreshingly paywall-free journalism, they also continue this bad habit of letting some truly awful copy through and straight past regular editorial standards!

I have an abiding memory of finding an unusual CD single there, which I loved the idea of owning despite the expense - even as a poor, misty-eyed teenage music fan, seeking life-changing music.

Having been just a little too young to buy contemporary Smiths records, I didn't want to miss out when an attractive Stone Roses opportunity arose. I couldn't afford much aged 13ish, but HMV was the only store in town with a good, broad selection of CD singles.

I always thought it was odd that Fool's Gold was the title track of the original UK release, when even my young mind knew What The World Is Waiting For made more sense as a neat, poppy-yet-credible indie potential crossover track. Fool's Gold later made sense with many and various remixes, the more commercial released some years later.

However my prescient sense of history was excited when I found HMV selling what I presume was an imported version, with a different John Squire sleeve showing What The World Is Waiting For as the title track, on an £8+ CD single next to the regular then-current  £3.99 option.

Not only was the tracklist the same, the CD inside looked identical to the indie chart-topping regular release. However so convincing was the superiority of the epic jangle pop number, I paid twice the regular price for my coveted CD single of What The World Is Waiting For. Admittedly this was still the era of regular vinyl sales, hence CDs didn't seem like the less collectable / desirable format back then.

Ironically by the time I got to college, the original CD was curiously gone - whilst the desirable packaging now housed my coincidentally caseless CD collection Turns Into Stone...which fortunately had both tracks from the single, plus many other great early Roses material (sadly mastered rather quietly).

I don't even know how long I managed to hold on to the original disc, but the great case had pride of place amongst my collection of interesting and obscure indie teenage treasures for years!

Quote from: buzby on December 29, 2018, 09:06:51 PM
I'd take issue with this. The branch in Liverpool at least was great for picking up import dance and remix 12" back in the early 90s. I also picked up a fair chunk of my KLF Communications collection there, as when they deleted their catalogue they dumped their remaining stock through The Cartel, and the HMV here had the foresight to pick loads of it up. Piles of new copies of the Pure Trance original and remix singles, copies of 1987:The JAMs 45 Edits album and Shag Times compilation all going for a couple of quid.

Sadly they couldn't keep the rent up on the megastore in Liverpool One (it's now a Foot Locker) and moved into a tiny shop down one of the alleys a couple of months ago.

My home town HMV moved into a much larger shop, just as the 1990s dance music scene took off before going commercial. I was always impressed at the volume and depth of 12" 45s they stocked.

We had several small independent record stores in that town, but no single shop had the range of both records and CDs to be found in the huge HMV megastore. Admittedly their vinyl focus was on dance music, but there was a massive range of CDs too.

At one point there was both an Our Price and Virgin competing, but not only was HMV well established - it was much bigger and the other two couldn't compete!

Just before the DVD takeover of big music shops, I recall seeing once-full racks now sparse with dwindling levels of stock. As I recall, HMV never competed on price. As new and used CDs along with dance and indie records siloed off towards the specialist trendy independent retailers, it seemed like that brief moment of success wore off.

Fortunately that left plenty of shelf space for the new DVD department, which co-existed for years alongside an impressively large VHS section. However as video sales declined and Amazon etc easily began to undercut their relatively high prices, the shop got smaller.

However when other HMV stores began closing, by then there were only a few local independent record stores left too - hence that shop stayed open, and having stayed at the same location for so long no doubt benefits from the legacy as the town's "big" record shop.

Despite the ground floor now being dominated by "sales" on various media formats, the regular pricing is still no match for the mighty Amazon and others. I've only visited occasionally in recent years, but it only ever seems busy now in the run up to Christmas.

However I suspect it's still the place where older folks like to shop for vouchers and physical media for gifts etc. I still find older members of my own family prefer to pay the extra for HMV's high street convenience, because cranking up the iPad and typing search parameters into the newfangled Amazon is still considered more hassle than driving 20 miles to go shopping!

kidsick5000

Quote from: rue the polywhirl on December 29, 2018, 09:02:18 PM
Article is pretty full of it considering that with any justice Guardian will be heading towards the same way as HMV soon. Irresponsible of them to publish even more bilge like that. Thoughts and prayers with HMV.

With any justice? Come off it. The Guardian closing is also thousands of jobs.
They published an opinion piece. Does not mean that they are of a hive mind.
Granted, plenty of news sources need to take a step back before saying 'why did the music industry fail?' but to wish that one of the few publications that still holds itself to some standard of integrity folds is ridiculous.

I don't like the article either.
Its makes and shoots down it own argument. It comes from a stupendously wrong-minded place of clique and privilege, one that suggests paying high-street prices for a basic cd , and not picking up some over-priced artisanal lampshade at the same time is somehow inauthentic.


steveh

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on December 30, 2018, 12:01:09 AM
My lasting memory of HMV (mid 90's, when they primarily sold cd's) was they were regularly more expensive than Ourprice or Virgin, especially on not particularly rare non-new stuff like NWA albums.

Always used to do Sister Ray -> Selectadisc -> Virgin Megastore -> HMV in that order because the prices increased with each one but the huge HMV had things you couldn't find anywhere else, like dance CD single imports.

Quote from: mojo filters on December 30, 2018, 01:34:09 AM

As I recall, HMV never competed on price.

Not sure. I definitely snapped up plenty new release 99p 7" singles in the Glasgow branch in the mid-late 90s, though that may have been record company chart rigging antics rather than HMV's own work.

imitationleather

The imports section was surprisingly good in a way that can't really be understood unless you had the chance to browse it yourself. But if it had been shit I wouldn't have spent the neck-end of thirty quid on a Japan-only Blur CD (Thirty quid! In the '90s! When I was a child!). So I'm on the fence about it all.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

What surprises me is that since their initial crisis they haven't noticeably appeared to innovate or shift away from what was already not working.

There was a chance they could have moved to a buy online/collect in store model and picked up some knock-on business on in-store purchases, but I bet the cunts don't even carry out stock takes. It may explain why single seasons of DVDs still cost £12 and look like they have been sat there for over a decade.

If anything the stores have gone backwards as previously you would get quite extensive niche selections which genuinely made it worth popping in on the off-chance of seeing something, but instead they have gone down a heavily mainstream route which, it would appear, has choked potential business.

Cuntbeaks

I always preferred Tower Records in Glasgow, much better selection than HMV, for the stuff I was looking for anyway.

HMV was the first port of call for VHS though, the bottom floor was dedicated to it.

bgmnts

Edgar Wright gave the article some stick on Twitter yesterday I think, right so.

Comes across as a right smug cunt.

I remember by local HMV having the video nasty section right next to the kids/disney section stuff. That always made me chuckle, the fact a five year old could end up seeing the front cover to Cannibal Holocaust.

the science eel

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on December 30, 2018, 01:25:20 PM
What surprises me is that since their initial crisis they haven't noticeably appeared to innovate or shift away from what was already not working.

Screamingly obvious KEY POINT, I would have thought. But nobody's talking about it.

greenman

Quote from: Nowhere Man on December 30, 2018, 12:12:13 AM
Last few years they seemed to only be bothered about flogging superhero bobbleheads, T-shirts, posters, overpriced DVD's and other silly tat. Add selling vinyl records for £20-30 a pop and it's hardly surprising consumers went elsewhere. They've ended up trying out a million different things to see what sticks, and as a result, it's hard to tell what kind of business they want to be.

I would disagree with that, very often I'v actually found them better value than Amazon and they do actually carry a pretty good range of DVD's/BR's in store including a good deal of more obscure stuff, indeed I think you could argue that's really what there core business has been for quite a few years.

kalowski

If HMV disappears, where am I going to go to buy Beatles' CDs for £15.99?

Gulftastic

I bought a discounted calendar today, and two cd's. I'll be sad to see it go.

And I'll feel sorry for young people who like looking at sexy ladies who will have nowhere to go to have a sneaky look at the posters. Sad to think there may soon be a generation for whom this poster means nothing.