So, as we all know, HMV gave a pretty serious cry for help earlier this month and went into administration, a situation I believe they are still in at the time of writing.
This is pretty sad, albeit, not for me right now. It is sad for the 18 year old me that used to look to HMV as a haven of music and film and pretty funny posters. This is not what HMV is right now, though. In today's world of digital downloads and free torrents, HMV stands as a beacon of slowpokedness, like a museum for the way people used to shop with adjoining gift shop of things people would really rather buy elsewhere. It was fun to look around, with the odd highlight sparking a degree of interest and excitement but, so often, you'd only find the realisation that you can get everything inside cheaper on the internet.
It's so hard to stand unique to the internet as a retail outlet, rather like this post so far compared to all the other posts about HMV. Especially as a store selling entertainment based products that seem so far out of date in the world of YouTube, Spotify and iTunes. The internet has brought us instant gratification. FREE, instant gratification. HMV, seemingly, have no answer to this, other than shifting their product range to include hardware and fashion accessories, a move that seems more desperate than inspired. It got itself stuck in retail no-man's land; desperately trying to keep up with the popular market which has reached a phase of almost constant fluctuations and change whilst, simultaneously, isolating the smaller, alternative crowds that used to be the stalwart clientele of record stores. It's no wonder it has been constantly falling into decline year on year.
That's the obvious and well documented history to the present.
But what now? Apparently, HMV's debt has been bought and so it looks likely that the chain will continue. But to what end? What changes will new bosses bring in to right the course? Probably more desperate market battles that it will inevitably lose. They might sell off assets like Fopp and the live venues to plug a few gaps (this seemed to start with the sale of Waterstone's last year) and, personally, I would welcome the much more eclectic Fopp being made free from the much less interesting main business. But, really, they should be embracing the positive aspects of both of these arms of the company. Living in Cambridge, I have been stunned a number of times by HMV over the last 12 months. First, their departure from the Lion Yard, which was what I knew to be their home from my first visits to the city at the age of 16 and, when I first heard about the location's closure, assumed spelled the company's demise. Turned out this was due to redevelopment of the centre and led to the next shock, which was the movement to a location on the other side of the city that had passed through several hands quite quickly in recent history. IT was exciting at the time, as the space had loads of space over 3 floors, suggesting we might be about to receive a mighty HMV flagship, perhaps with a live floor. In reality, the new location ended up being just another HMV, with the biggest amount of space given over to headphones and tablets, as well as a cafe that was always empty becasue of both Caffe Nero's and Starbucks having locations not 30 seconds away. And an empty second floor, presumably the stockroom.
The last shock was their sudden fall into administration. Not because I couldn't see it coming, more because it seemed the company was going to teeter on the edge of death until the money ran out completely. They'd just disappear, silently, into the night and get replaced by another Primark or Poundland. It seems a long stretch for the new owners to turn this round, but I've got my mind stuck on wondering what the hell I would do if it was me.
Watching High Fidelity has, surprisingly, been pretty enlightening. It showed me that music is almost infinitely varied and expansive, far more than movies at the moment. Therefore, it makes sense for HMV to revert back to centring their business around music, which, somehow, is something I feel it has managed to lose sight of. One of the lasting draws of HMV has been its browsability. The problem, however, is that you are only ever looking at the same old jewel cases that, in the end, don't appeal anymore. If today's public were, on the whole, still bothered about cases and album art then there wouldn't be such am exodus away from buying physical copies of things. What really sells music to people is how it sounds so, it makes sense, giving the customer a chance to listen to new things might be a good step to take if you are trying to encourage physical sales in a physical shop.
The follow-on problem that this presents is that most of HMV's focus has been on the popular end of music. The part of music which is
Record shops were all about a close-knit group of shoppers looking for the new best thing. HMV, as it operates today, is about trying to sell things to people that downloaded it last week. I can't help but look at Apple and the success of their retail outlets and suspect that, in the future, success will not actually rely on selling products. It will be more about the community you can draw in. It doesn't make sense for HMV to be selling the means for customers to get their music elsewhere with iPads and other tablets. The ambitious plan would be to create their own, unique mp3 player with the aim of selling music purely digitally, keeping hard copies for the dedicated, vintage chasers. The future of record shops might well be purely rows of listening stations, a cafe, a stage and, as always, some enthusiastic staff that all have a great knowledge of the local music that the store will be promoting, maybe even producing. Or, whatever the best way of creating a place where people can go, discover new music, local to them, share discoveries with other customers and the staff, and then, maybe, buy a few hot, undiscovered albums on your HMV mp3player.
So, that's my solution. I might be spouting craziness, but that's the kind of thing I yearn to have access to. Sure, I'll download things, but I also love the idea of talking to those in the know about the local music catalogue and picking up something after they give me a listen. A genuine feeling of walking in there with no idea of what I'll uncover. An HMV free of Beatles t-shirts, awful posters and One Direction wristbands.
I can but dream.
