Giving Nipper new teeth

Between Donald Tusk insulting UK politicians which could just be the kerosene to be poured on Brexit with a free match as if we didn't need any more animosity, some good news did emerge on Tuesday regarding one of stories late 2018.

 Canadian record retailer, Sunrise agreed to pay for 100 of HMV UK's stores with closures of 27 least profitable, planning to stock a higher amount of vinyl records which generally have a higher mark up than cds and less at risk from people streaming instead of buying which has been the case with dvd and blu-ray's as much as some such as myself do buy titles that wish to own.
Sunrise in 2017 bought out HMV Canada that was failing and has managed to turn the store group around although like the proposals here, a number were shut in what was a black period for music retail in that country with Sam The Record Man being shut a couple of years before with reduced sales and higher rent charges in places like downtown Toronto.
Great Britain is the second biggest player in popular music and a major one in English language arts in general home of course not just to the vast expanse of London Theatreland but to Pinewood, the UK's Hollywood often use by American owned film companies.
To that extent we absolutely need a shop front for our creative arts where artists can do signings, 'pop up' short performances and places where staff do know and share knowledge about music.
I am and strongly support independent music retailers as until the arrival of HMV in 1992 in this district we had a good number of our own such as the much missed Mike Lloyd Megastores in Stoke City centre, Newcastle under Lyme, Stafford and  Wolverhampton and their encouragement in exploring music set my passion off buying albums.
Most went when firstly supermarkets started selling top sellers off cheaply and then Amazon were selling back catalogue titles for less than they could manage but HMV survived until 2013 and after then  our two branches in Stoke and Wolverhampton still did good business until the recent administration and were where I bought new vinyl albums by bands I liked. 
The staff when I went in twice recently were very friendly, there is something about handling and looking through a rack that's just not the same as going on a web site so I hope this is successful.

Nipper has lost his bark redux!

It may be the new year but there's a distinct feeling of deja vu in the air given I've had to go go into the district centre quicker than I'd of planned this Monday

 On January 13th 2013 on this blog I wrote about the going into administration of HMV, the large british music and video retailer on the back of the collapse of Jessop's photography stores.
Well on Friday December 28 2018 around 10 am as I was out on a long walk, it was announced Hilco who owned HMV since that year had filed for administration citing poor christmas sales, a big collapse in dvd/blu ray sales, very high rents and the moved toward streaming.
Oh brother thought I as I looked at my telephone answering  device as I saw my brother had left a message for me because as it happened he'd given me a gift voucher bought mid December for Christmas.
With charismatic fairness he'd said if they weren't going to honour gift vouchers -and under UK law they need not when in administration-  he'd give me a cash replacement.

A vinyl rack in store where you may discern vinyl prices are high than corresponding cd issues although there's always been something in holding a lp record in your hand compared to a cd never mind a download.

 A cd rack where many titles are discounted meaning in real terms they sell for less than did in the early 1990's including even Chart Titles not just back catalogues that stores such as HMV stocked in the past.

That news was why I had get get my voucher redeemed asap before any store closures and major stock depictions take place.

As most of cd and sacd discs I buy tend to be limited edition titles with world wide runs of 5,000 or less stores tend not to stock them in the way during the nineties they did.
Instead I picked up some dvd and blu ray titles such as the Beatles documentary movie Eight Day's a Week - the touring years from 2016 I had been putting off for a bit but were likely to get fairly soon anyway.
That took care of ensuring my Christmas voucher money wasn't lost.

High street update

Brrr it's cold outside and I haven't been able to venture terribly far what with all this snow, ice and what not but who cares as I see plenty enjoying the winter that is probably more than our Prime Minister is at the minute.
Whats happened in the last week or so is the retailer HMV  who had gone into administration seems to be be in the process of being bought out by Hilton's who bought the Canadian stores a few years back and there's a willingness on the part of suppliers such as the music companies to lower wholesale prices and the terms of supplying goods to give the ol' dog some bite as they see an advantage in having their products on the high street (and not just a few titles in Asda and Tesco's).
That's good but I still feel 200+ stores is just not sensible in the current market all coming with their individual rent which is a large part of the problem in being a physical high street retailer in the UK. Indeed in passing I'll mention as of the end of this month the Disney store locally in a 350,000 population catchment of the North-west Midlands is closing because the mall rents are too high for them, which I think gives you an indication of the scale of the rent issue - and it needs action.
I feel they need to make better use of having an internet store - currently closed - allowing customers to order directly from a central large catalogue and allow them to nominate a store for picking up bulky or otherwise hard to deliver items in the metropolitan districts.
It also would help the stores by meaning they wouldn't have to keep very large stocks and if each store also had wifi, you could whip out your tablet, order a title and collect when convenient just by yourself. That may help staffing costs too.
Bigger stores may benefit by having a coffee store and maybe used vinyl store concession being allowed operate from the store to make the most of being the music store of a area which would help smaller store get more exposure without the expensive of a prime location. You see concessions in many 'womens' stores so why not try it???
The Prime Minister bit: spare you the details but he's wanting to reform the EU first and put that in a upcoming Tory government bill on a referendum as the yes option.
I really don't feel whatever the merits (and there are many) of reforming the EU, it's a proverbial can of worms most European leaders want to open particularly if we're talking about renegotiation of terms. It seems to me he's trying to folk on side who'd defect to the anti EU membership political party, UKIP rather more than seriously believing it would work out.

Nipper has lost his bark!

After last week, she said trying desperately not to come over all smug, it's finally happened, music retailing has moved from the high street.  Poor ol' Nipper.

Well okay, I know that's Birmingham Bull Ring, not Broad Street, but you know what I mean -our town and city centres - with the shock announcement late last night the national music and video retailer HMV was planning on going into administration following poor Christmas sales.
Sounds familiar,eh? And rather like with Jessops they also were being bankrolled by the suppliers who provided much of the January 25% off "Blue Cross" sales stock as did two state owned banks who to put things with my usually matter of factness, want their money back.
Some other similarities include high rents, failure to capitalize on online sales, poor in store stocks (I mean just seven studio albums by the Stones in the branch in a large city branch near me???), uncompetitive online store pricing (Amazon often cheaper).
HMV potentially could of gotten into downloading but after a brief messy store attempt, partnered up with 7Digital who run that for them which would be fine except 7Digital are a big brand in their own right so most would of gone straight to them.
As much as I feel for for all the staff I'm expecting nearly all the branches to go simply because it seems to me you can't run a big chain anymore because of the overheads and also your immediate best sellers, new albums, are stocked by both supermarkets such as ASDA and Tesco cheaply and the likes of Amazon for those who want cds but many more  prefer to download and these can obtained cheaply from the big three Amazon, iTunes and 7Digital.
You can do niche cd selling from a small side street location with an internet presence backed by a warehouse.
Hmv failed also to capitalize on the "Vinyl revival" by stocking few new and re-issue titles that many who like a physical album buy which was the tipping point for me becoming fed  up of having to order run of the mill cd titles only to return later at my expense to collect, getting an account at Amazon  ordering from them. I guess I wasn't alone in that!
I get the nostalgia many are feeling, remembering the first time I visited HMV Oxford Street London and the Manchester store still having those records and the many BritPop vinyl  titles on 7" and 12" lp I bought new that are most collectible.
I just feel by years end the high street will be that much the poorer.