His Master’s Diminishing Voice

We’re only five days into the New Year and already we have the first big piece of news concerning the music scene we find ourselves in today. To be honest, I very much doubt any of you were overly shocked by the news that HMV (His Master’s Voice) was struggling to make ends meet. This is the way the entertainment industry has been heading for years now. Cast your eyes back to 2007 when Fopp just about seized to exist, and more recently Zavvi in 2008. The closure of Aberdeen’s much loved venue Moshulu and many other venues the brand owned early in 2010 should have had us well prepared for this, but where did it all go wrong?

Well, everyone knows that the Internet has a massive part to play in this saga. Consumers have been illegally obtaining entertainment material for years now and as piracy rises, sales in the entertainment sector have plummeted and one could argue that this is a result of that, but I really do believe that would be a lazy judgement to make. For years now, HMV have been massively over pricing the music they sell. With Amazon offering a gigantic number of CDs at what seems to perpetually cheaper prices, it’s very little wonder footfall is on the decrease, but adding free delivery on top of that, those who wish to save their pennies need not set foot in a store again. I don’t understand how HMV could have matched the price of their Internet opponents, but it really seems like this massive aspect of the business has been ignored.

Not only do the company over charge for their products, they don’t really have much an idea who they want to sell the products too. There’s been no attempt to clarify what demographic the company wish to focus on, instead trying to appeal to many different parties. This means a massive reduction of niche stock. It’s simple really. The more T-shirts, mugs, hoodies and other shit HMV try to sell, the less space their is to store the products that actually matter. What do you get? A rather depleted collection of music that only seems to consist of chart music, genre compilations and “greatest hits” like albums. If they want die hard music fans to put money in the till, then they really have to put a bit of imagination into their stock because at the moment, browsing through the store for any new music is nigh on impossible. It really does seem like music has recently taken a back seat to let the company focus on selling games and DVDs. In many stores across the country, you have to search for the music section and it again raises the question, why on earth would anyone want to shop there? The same can be said about the other media types HMV stock. Their is a lack of depth in movies, games and CD’s they sell due to them trying to cater to everybody. HMV won’t survive on such a business model, because they, unlike Amazon, are confined to space. They don’t have the space to do this and they’ve suffered for it.

This is just my take on the whole thing and I’m sure many will disagree, but I really don’t think I’ll miss HMV all that much. I’m a music die hard and my local independent record store is just across the road. Not only do I get a massive collection of CD’s to browse through, I love the community they have. I love asking the cashier what’s playing on the radio. These guys love music and their customers know that. If HMV could even take a patch of inspiration from my local (One Up), then they’d be one step closer to sustaining the business, but it looks like this ship is just about ready to sink.