HMV: Has more vigour

Here's something that I don't think anyone was expecting to be reading a couple of years back: HMV is thriving.

Yes, HMV.

Yes, it's doing quite well:

The UK music retailer has opened 14 new stores this year, with another three planned before Christmas. This is in stark contrast to early 2013 when the business collapsed under £176m of debt and 80 of its 223 shops were shut. It was rescued by the retail turnaround firm Hilco, which took on 141 high street stores and 2,600 employees.

And turn around it has - mostly by not making the mistakes of the past, and admitting it's not a technology shop, or a cinema, or a youth club. It's been helped by the vinyl revival - which it may be hoping isn't just a fad - and there's this, too:

HMV has made a rapid comeback on the high street, wresting the title of the UK’s biggest music and DVD retailer back from Amazon in January.

I suspect the Guardian actually means physical retailer there, and it's a bit of a double-edged honour; it's not that it's suddenly become a more powerful retailer, just that online, people are streaming or downloading a lot more, so why would you buy a CD from Amazon?

Still, while it lasts, it's a tribute to Hilco and the work they've done. There's life in the old dog yet.

Not sure how it'll fare in the coming market crash, though...

Tumblrgem: Depeche Mode

http://planetdm.tumblr.com/post/116096948495/29-years-ago-depeche-mode-at-the-hmv-nottigham

Not pictured: Gennaro Castaldo.

Douglas Carswell invokes HMV to explain UKIP popularity

Douglas Carswell reckons the Tories are struggling because, effectively, they're HMV:

Douglas Carswell, who made history as the first elected Ukip MP last week, said he hoped more Tories joined him but insisted the party was "not the Conservative party in exile".

He likened the Tories to failed music store HMV. "The way the Tory party is retailing politics is like the way HMV retailed music. It's a defunct retail model," he said on the Andrew Marr show this morning.

Somewhere, David Cameron is punching the air and going "not Our Price. At least we're not Our Price."

Let's just leave aside the suggestion that retailing is a good metaphor for politics, because it's almost certainly depressingly true.

Carswell's wrong, of course. When it looked like HMV might vanish from the high streets of Britain, everyone thought that would be a bad thing.

Twittergem: HMV

HMV downsizing in progress:

HMV, 150 Oxford Street: pic.twitter.com/2fgi6vpyJ2

— krs (@conroy_bumpus) January 17, 2014

HMV pulls Lostprophets from the shelves

I suppose, pragmatically, there's not a person in the country who would want to buy a Lostprophets record in public now, and in that sense HMV's decision to remove their records from stores makes sense.

On the other hand, it's an interesting precedent that HMV has set, now it's decided that conviction for some child abuse crimes makes an artist's work unacceptable. But only some - Roman Polanski's drugging and rape of a girl, for example, is not a a bar to the chain selling his work; and their Gary Glitter artist page even mentions his convictions while still offering a chance to buy his tracks.

I don't think it's a bad move to have a policy on this. It's just not clear what HMV's policy is.

HMV launches plans to defeat iTunes; realises it needs iTunes to be part of the plans

So, although it looked like it wouldn't make it through to offer confused elderly relatives a place to buy not quite the right CDs for the young 'uns this Christmas, HMV has survived in some form. Shrunk down, owned by a group known for restructuring; historical debts erased. Now, at last, the chain can focus on its unique selling point - being the only place you can go to buy recorded entertainment left standing. Right?

Hang on, they've just announced the completion of their image makeover. What did you guys come up with - something about your stores, right?

HMV has overhauled its online presence with a new, more editorially-focused site as it looks to re-exert its brand authority and customer experince through online channels.

Oh. Really? You're still thinking your a business which really has a future in being some sort of chatty webmagazine with some 'buy' buttons attached?

Why would you think that?

HMV chairman Paul McGowan said: “Everything we’re doing with HMV is focused on engagement, content and curation – all the things that HMV lost sight of in recent years.

“The passion within the business for the products we sell, the specialist knowledge and ability to recommend and guide our customers – from store staff to the team in head office – is second to none and the new hmv.com. brings that to the forefront.”

Did you ever go into an HMV before you bought the company, Paul? With all the best will in the world, nobody would ever have gone into an HMV store to ask musical advice from the staff, any more than you'd expect to get agricultural advice from the people who restock the dairy counters in Tesco. That's not to say that there weren't some HMV assistants who weren't passionate about music, but those that wee generally would have advised you to shop elsewhere.

The brand has recruited an editorial team to manage the site, while staff across the company’s chain of 142 UK stores will also be encouraged to contribute with content.

Given the PR disaster which followed HMV staff retaining access to official HMV channels that's quite a brave move.

However, at least this is something that you've fully thought through, right? It's not in any way a ragbag of half-formed ideas with a promise of better things to come, is it?

HMV general manager Caroline Pesch said: “As a hub for entertainment, a key element of the site is the sense of community and ease of use for finding local and relevant information. In addition to editorial features and reviews store staff can post their own picks and tips based on what’s happening on a local level. This is just phase one of the new site; as it develops we will be introducing lots more new and exciting functionality. The volume of content available will grow daily.”

Oh. Nothing says 'some stuff got written on a white board, and we think someone took a photo, and we're pretty certain there's something there we might be able to turn into some sort of web feature when we work out what the bloody thing says' like a vague suggestion that something "new and exciting" is coming in the future.

There's also an app, which Wired has heard all about:

[James] Coughlan, who was previously involved in building up Vodafone's digital music business, is first to admit that HMV has in the past "not really embraced the digital world in the way it should have done".

Yeah, that was Vodafone's digital music business that he built up. Because music is the first thing you think of when you hear Vodafone's name. Well, first thing after you've thought 'oh, the company that pretends its legally obliged to pay as little tax as possible'. And 'irritating bee commercials'. And 'spun off a military business'. But then, surely, you'd start to think about Vodafone's music.

There is, to be fair, a Vodafone Music twitter feed, which hasn't had a message since October 2nd. Erm, October 2nd, 2009. And vodafone.com/music just redirects to the Vodafone homepage. You can find out about Vodafone music, though, by searching on the site:

Vodafone Music has now closed
Vodafone Music is now closed, so you won’t be able to download any music from us anymore.

That's a pretty solid business built up there, then.

Never mind, though, James is now bringing his magic to HMV:

"What we're doing here by bringing a digital offering to market is we're amplifying what HMV's renowned for," he tells Wired.co.uk. "I see this lifting our physical business as well, because you probably are going to have experiences where you're in store and you're scanning physical products and the digital version may be a couple of quid higher than the physical copy you've got in your hand."

Interesting. The idea of having an app which appears to tell you that HMV's pricing policy is all over the place. Not entirely sure how advertising that your digital downloads are overpriced is really going to help, but you can't fault the honesty.

Still, Coughlan is at least dedicated to the idea of digital music. Isn't he?

Coughlan still believes that nothing really compares to holding a physical record

Oh.

But... he can at least tolerate the digital world, presumably?

"I fully support streaming and I think what it's done for the music business has been good. It's certainly ticked the box for the labels in being seen to act on what was going on over the last ten years with the likes of Napster and illegal downloads and doing their own education with the youth audience as to actually there is a value to music."

I'm not sure that sentence actually contained proper thoughts, so it'd probably be churlish to point out that Napster - the illegal version - closed down well over ten years ago. And that, arguably, streaming has done far more to undermine the traditional music business model by replacing the sense that music is a thing you collect and own than filesharing ever did.

Wired does praise something Coughlan has managed to arrange:

HMV has also managed to strike a deal with Apple that lets users download songs from the app straight into their iPhone's music library -- a first for a service other than iTunes.

Brilliant, right?

Except, almost as soon as the app launched last week, it vanished from the iTunes store. It turned out that if there was a deal with Apple, it fell apart pretty quickly:

Apple confirmed to The Guardian that the app was removed for "violating App Store guidelines", pointing to clause 11.13 in those guidelines: "Apps using IAP to purchase physical goods or goods and services used outside of the application will be rejected".

Early days for the fightback, though. And HMV does still have some stores on the High Street. Apple can't take that away from them.

Although a couple of the shops might be well placed for flogging iPhones from...

Ex-HMV man forced to bow to His Ex-Master's Voice

Tony Cregan had been managing HMV in Derry when the brilliant minds who had restructured the chain suddenly realised they didn't know what they were doing and closed the place down.

Cregan, being enterprising, and understanding the local market, reckoned this would be an opportunity, bought an empty retail unit, and opened up a new record shop.

Cheekily, he branded it HVM. (I really wish I could tell you he sent out press releases from Castalro Gennado, but he didn't.)

Were HMV's new owners Hilco delighted to see one of the people they no longer wanted doing well in a market from which they had chosen to withdraw?

Of course not:

In a letter from its legal team it warned Mr Cregan that he was causing confusion in the minds of the public that the business "is associated with or connected with that of our client".

The warning added: "The continued presence in the market of your business operating under the name HVM has caused and will continue to cause substantial damage to our client's reputation and goodwill."

You know what else harms goodwill towards HMV? HMV behaving like asshats. In fact, that probably does far more damage to any feelings of goodwill towards HMV, given that they've come across as humourless and bullying on a national level.

Rather than get into a legal battle, Cregan has simply turned the sign upside down and rebranded as WAH.

Funnily enough, an identical thing happened to a woman who took over a defunct Woolworths.

HMV downsizes

This is interesting - as part of the frantic restructuring Hilco are doing to try and save HMV, the chain is going to give its flagship store to Foot Locker, and move into Foot Locker's old Oxford Street store.

It's full circle for HMV, with the 'new' shop actually being their original Oxford Street flagship. It's also a comedown, as the store is only a third the size of the one they're leaving.

Gennaro Castaldo Watch: Gennaro Castaldo is the story

For years now, we've delighted in the work of Gennaro Castaldo, as he clambered onto the Official Opinionator of HMV and shared the fading retail network's viewpoints.

But no more, for Castaldo's 27 year-run with HMV is coming to an end.

The good news, though, is that Castaldo isn't falling silent.

Oh, no. He's now joined the RIAA's UK client group, the BPI:

Gennaro Castaldo said, “I'm really looking forward to this exciting new challenge - working with Geoff and his team, Tony Wadsworth and, of course, the BPI members to communicate the exciting developments taking place in our industry during this dynamic time of change.

"I can't leave HMV without saying what a privilege it's been for me to have worked there and particularly with so many wonderful colleagues and associates past and present, who I will always think of with great affection. I will look to bring the same passion and commitment to my new role and build on the strong foundation of media engagement that is already in place."

Well, it's tricky days for the BPI. But you can't argue that during the last couple of days, HMV hasn't been in the papers. Gennaro is the man for the job.

Gennaro Castaldo watch as HMV lurches into another new start

So the last sighting in the public prints of Gennaro Castaldo came a couple of weeks back as Bracknell's HMV shut down. He'd taken on the role of the sad-eyed uncle at a funeral:

Gennaro Castaldo, head of PR for the entertainment chain, said that he is "very, very sad" to see the store go.

He told the News: "With a number of the stores Deloitte decided to bring the closure forward. Obviously it's not totally unexpected, it's more or less in the time frame they [Deloitte] spoke about of four-six weeks.

"I met the staff there [at Bracknell] before Christmas and it was a real pleasure, they're a fantastic group of kids and we wish them the very best.

"We'd also like to thank our customers in Bracknell who've shopped with us for years."

At the same time, Gennaro predicted that there would be a buyer for HMV in "the next week or so" and, indeed, more or less on cue Hilco picked up the remaining stores in the chain. And Fopp, too. No independent Fopp, then, at least not yet.

This means that - once again - HMV is set for a revamp of format:

The sale of T-shirts and other artist memorabilia are expected to be at the heart of an optimistic "we are entertainment" revival plan for HMV, which was rescued by a turnaround firm in a £50m deal that has secured about 2,500 jobs at 141 of the retailer's stores.

Hilco, the new owner, plans to concentrate on selling music and film and step away from selling consumer electronics. Music labels and film studios, keen to ensure that a major entertainment retailer remains on the high street, are understood to have agreed to support HMV with new supply terms.

In Hilco's favour, then, are new agreements with landlords and suppliers, and a dumping of a lot of the outstanding debt and underperforming stores.

Dumping the foolish desire to flog iPads and overpriced headphones makes sense, too. Trying to nudge the store into a different declining High Street niche never made sense.

And Hilco do at least have a track record they can point to - their Canadian variant had a really great Christmas, albeit relying as much on tshirts with the word "Bazinga" on them as selling records.

Whether it'll work in the UK, I'm not so sure. I suspect what Hilco have bought is a business from which they'll be reaping a dwindling profit across its declining years. But that's a better fate than the proposal which would have seen HMV become a brand slapped over the DVD rack in the corner of an Asda.

Fopp free in the future?

Something good in the collapse of HMV: It looks like Fopp might be set free to live an independent life once more.

BPI hails digital

The BPI has, at least, resisted the temptation to describe the 19% of UK music buyers who only ever download as "digital natives". Let's be thankful for that.

They seem thrilled by this news, as it gives it something positive to say after a grim couple of months.

"There has rightly been a lot of focus in the past few weeks on high street music retail. That will continue – we must do all we can to serve music fans who love CDs and vinyl," said the BPI chief executive, Geoff Taylor.

I'm not sure what he means here - does he mean that high street retail will continue? Or the "focus" on it will continue? And whose focus? Ours? The BPI's?

If it's the industry's focus, last month Taylor was kind of vague when talking to Billboard about what the BPI was doing:

We're working very hard together with AIM [Association of Independent Music] in talks with the administrator of HMV. Secondly, we are talking to [U.K. collection society] PRS for Music about the way that publishers approach mechanical royalties on stock for which labels are not being paid, or only being paid a fraction of its value. It's important that the publishing community help labels ensure that HMV has a viable future and that as much of HMV can emerge as a viable ongoing concern as possible.

Obviously, you wouldn't expect Taylor to detail exactly what moves were being made, but given that's an interview with a trade magazine, you'd expect something more than "we're having chats with the people managing the decline" as a roadmap.

Still, back to today, and Taylor's embrace of the new figures:

But as well as great music stores...

You're going to have to speak up, Geoff, we can't hear you above the sound of boards being nailed over HMV windows.

...Britain is blessed with a world-beating array of digital music services, which fans rate very highly for ease of use and value for money. And this is just the beginning."

Only a puritan hides his fear of Springtime by pretending to celebrate it. There's a hollowness to this embrace of digital from an organisation whose members struggled against the tide for so long.

And the suggestion that Britain is somehow at the heart of things is surprising - perhaps he's thinking of America's iTunes or Amazon, or Sweden's Spotify. (True, Spotify is headquartered in London now, but its heart is still Scandinavian.)

And the value for money claim is surprising.

In the US, Spotify premium costs $9.99. At the moment, that's £6.38. The same package costs £9.99 here ($15.65 in USD.)

In the US, the top tier of iTunes pricing is $1.29, equivalent to 82p. In the UK, the top rate is 99p - $1.55 at current exchange rates.

When Geoff Taylor hails the value for money, it'd be nice if he could explain what the extra value UK customers are getting for this hefty mark-up.

HMV "intern" wasn't an intern; didn't hijack account

Today has just done a piece on the HMV Twitter sackings yesterday - there seemed to be a general assumption that the problem was that HMV had given a "junior team member" a Twitter log-in, rather than the perhaps more serious problem that HMV was sacking people in a brutal fashion.

Jeremy B's Twitter feed has pointed the world in the direction of Poppy Rose's personal account. She's the person who was tweeting on HMV's behalf as the axe was being swung about. And, despite the repeated suggestions that she was an intern, she wasn't.

Here's her side of the story, collated from a series of tweets (There's much more on her timeline):

I would apologise for the #hmvXFactorFiring tweets but I felt like someone had to speak. As someone without a family to support/no mortgage

I felt that I was the safest person to do so. Not to mention, I wanted to show the power of Social Media to those who refused to be educated

Just to set something straight, I did not ‘hijack’ the hmv twitter account. I actually assumed sole responsibility of Twitter & Facebook -

- over two years ago, as an intern.When asked (this afternoon), I gladly provided the password to head office. I also set another member of

staff up as a manager on Facebook, and removed myself from the admin list. I didn’t resist any requests to cooperate.

There's also a punchline, posted two hours ago:

@hmvtweets you need to go to 'settings' and revoke my account access as an admin. I'm still able to switch between accounts.

— Poppy Rose (@poppy_powers) February 1, 2013

HMV sacks workers painfully, clumsily

When HMV went into administration, management were quick to stress they'd continue business as usual, and yesterday's sacking of 190 staff at head office and across the distribution network was done in typical HMV style - management behaving carelessly and loading pain on top of humiliation.

The Guardian captured screenshots as staff got wind of what was happening, and took to Twitter:

But, you might be asking, how could the poor management at HMV know that Twitter would be seized by the people who were paying the price for their mistakes?

They might have had a clue from the official Twitter account of the Irish stores, which even now sports an angry cross and the name "Store closed":

There's also some pretty direct criticism of the HMV management, sitting there:

What's that? Maybe it wasn't an officially-sanctioned account, and perhaps the London HMV communications and management people didn't even know of its existence?

Unlikely, as here is a message from the account - sent in (marginally) happier times, but now carrying the piratical 'store closed' and grim cross - in HMV spokestwitterer Gennaro Castaldo's account:

Hilco buy the debt, effectively buy HMV

Good news for lovers of novelty mugs and amusing t-shirts: ITV News are reporting that Hilco has bought HMV's debt, which means they become kingmaker for HMV's future. And given they're interested in taking control of HMV, that's more-or-less certain what will happen now.

HMV Canada looking most likely to buy HMV

The chances of Hilco, owners of HMV Canada, taking over the British chain are looking stronger today as the major labels indicate they'd be willing to support the company through 'generous credit'.

Which is nice, although the majors were already offering splendid terms to HMV and it didn't really do much good.

Hilco have made something of a success in Canada, but this CBC report which tries to explain that success doesn't really offer much enlightenment:

After downsizing to 113 stores in the past year and a half, [HMV Canada's Nick] Williams said HMV Canada is now preparing to re-enter some of the markets it left, particularly in malls.

He credits the retailer's perseverance in the Canadian market to a decision to abandon several low-margin entertainment products, like video games and technology hardware like tablets and iPod docking stations, in favour of higher margin branded products like superhero T-shirts and coffee mugs branded with rock bands like Kiss.

The shift in selection helped HMV Canada deliver strong holiday shopping sales, with $65.4 million of sales over the period, coming in better than its $63.5 million holiday revenue target.

Hmm. Green Lantern t-shirts and novelty mugs. Doesn't HMV in the UK already sell a lot of that sort of tat already?

Bookmarks: HMV

Lady_cait worked for the Virgin Megastores as they became Zavvi and then crashed into a wall. She then joined HMV, and is seeing her employer collapse all over again. She's hoping that as people get upset about their gift cards losing value, they'll also spare a thought for the 4,000 people losing much, much more:

Except its not 4000 jobs. It’s 4000 people. 4000 families. 4000 homes. Just like when our shop went under it was me and my credit card bills. Jess and her mortgage. Dan and his kids, Tony and his retirement plans. People’s lives thrown into absolute chaos. It’s the scariest thing that ever happened to me, and probably to alot of them too. I hope people realise that in the next few weeks, when they walk into a HMV and find out they can’t use their gift card anymore.

The long Game

Last March, computer game store Game was having difficulties, and HMV was gloating. Gennaro Castaldo, hearing the rival chain was finding it hard to get hold of stock, sensed a chance:

We are working hard on our own advertising, PR and promotional activities, including specially-built product zones on hmv.com, to send a positive message out to consumers so they know we have these titles in stock, and to highlight special deals we may be offering.

I think it's fair to say that the virtual-reality boot is now on the other player's foot controller. One winter on, and Game are offering to buy chunks of HMV's corpse:

Retailer Game has revealed that it is one of the 50 separate groups or individuals who have expressed an interest in buying all, or part of HMV.

Game has asked HMV's administrators, accountancy firm Deloitte, about the possibility of purchasing an undisclosed number of HMV stores.

Perhaps the best continuity bet for HMV having a (probably short-term) future comes from Hilco. They own the Canadian HMV, which operates under a licence.

It's a collapse jam-packed with irony.

Occupy HMV

While Deloitte are still trying to find a buyer for the UK HMV chain, the Ireland branches have been put into receivership and closed.

Staff, understandably, are angry as hell at being told they won't get paid, and are occupying the Limerick store:



Also being hit by the more extreme approach being taken in the Republic are the proceeds from a charity single. RTE explains:

€27,000 in funds raised by a charity single for a seriously ill child are in limbo because of the problems facing HMV.

More than 300 musicians took part in the recording of "Tiny Dancer", which went to number one.

Lily Mae Morrison, a four-year-old from Galway, is undergoing treatment for neuroblastoma at Our Lady's Children's Hospital Crumlin.

The charity says that Deloitte are "aware of the sensitivity of the situation", by which I think they mean they know how bad a terrible situation could look. Perhaps Deloitte might like to pass a share of the squillions they're getting for closing HMV down to the charity as well?

Gift vouchers expired

Not an unexpected move, but Deloitte have just announced that any HMV gift vouchers will not be honoured.

I can understand why they do this, but every time that announcement is made, it just destroys any lingering confidence and goodwill, doesn't it?