Sadly in order to maintain some focus on the High Street. HMV are trying to sell products far too cheap. But that's good for us isn't it?Right now quality titles such as Imelda May are on sale for less than a fiver at HMV. It's sad, it's worth more. Or is it? Actually having spent 20 years running labels and making a living out of music I think £5 seems to be a great price for music.
If all CD's were around the £5 mark I'd take more risks buying material. Would people make money out of a £5 CD, well actually I'd hazard a well educated guess and say yes. Sales would increase, FACT, The artist would sell more concert tickets, FACT. You can question my logic but it's really simple. I am the man I used to create content for. I understand how it works and I understand how you could increase sales overall by reducing unit prices. Sadly it costs alot to run a high street chain, but that's not my problem. My problem was creating content that people would want to buy, getting the stores to stock it was the biggest nightmare. iTunes was like a light from the heavens, they never said no. That's what music labels need to ensure they can create content not only for the masses.
Buying music isn't what it used to be, the event has gone, I walked into my local HMV and the front of the store is now filled with electronic equipment to play iPods on. That's not about buying records, that's a smell of desperation. In my local town, they have gone from being a CD and DVD store, which to be blunt, they had the monopoly on and they walked away from it.
It's not the product that was the problem, it was the price! Consumers control price and companies that try to control it die. HMV tried to control it and it may have destroyed them.
I'm actually and Sad about it's demise, don't kid yourself that it'll pull through, in the high street it's doomed. It may still be here in 12 months time, but it'll be internet only or tied into your local starbucks only offering a bare selection similar to that found in your local Sainsbury's. Infact most likely some high flying sales guru will be brought in to save the day, he'll tell the board the future is technology to allow the kids to play the music they bought off iTunes and they'll start selling it...then they'll realise that like the CD, they can't compete with the prices in the marketplace as all the other outlets, Comet, Currys even PC World can sell it cheaper...and that's where you'll find the people.
Oh and Finally, I love HMV. It was the most consistent of the record shops of my youth. My teens and twenties were all about HMV, my thirties were about iTunes. I miss walking into a store and flicking through CD's. I miss it even more that I can still walk into an HMV but find it harder and harder to find the CD's in there!