HMV goes into administration!

Very sad news. 

I suppose it’s fairly indicative of how music is continually being sought out now – online is no longer looking to be the future, it’s looking to be the only option.  It’s fairly inevitable that in ten, fifteen years’ time, it will be very difficult to be able to walk into a store and purchase an actual CD.  Maybe charity shops will become the new record collector’s dream?

First, Our Price (remember them?), Virgin, Zavvi (are they still going actually?), and now potentially HMV.  It’s been fascinating seeing how HMV have had to move with the times up to this point and to note their transition from being Goliath, in comparison with the independent music retailers, and then morphing into their role as David against the online stores like Amazon and iTunes.  I’ve spent many, many hours in HMV Bond Street – that was my store!  I used to walk around in lunch breaks, after work, and even before work, flicking through their, at one time, extensive CD singles, and albums, etc, and this is back when that store used to house music on all of its three floors.  Sadly too, that store doesn’t exist anymore but last time I was there, all of the music had been moved to the top floor with the ground and basement floors housing the DVDs, games, iPod equipment, etc. 

I imagine this story would be more touching if I was writing about a tiny independent music store being eaten up by the big leagues.  In truth, for CDs, over the years I’ve definitely turned to Amazon as it’s certainly far cheaper to buy online, and I’m still in the dwindling minority of people who still actually purchase hardcopy!  Incredible isn’t it?!

I suppose that’s what I love about The Blue-in-Green blog…  Here, I’m potentially not in the dwindling minority at all.  Here’s a place for music fans, connoisseurs and enthusiasts to share their passion, and buying CDs and records doesn’t make you a bizarre stone-age weirdo.  (Sorry, but you’d be surprised at the amount of people that are shocked that I actually still BUY music.)

Anyway, at the time of writing, this isn’t specifically the end for HMV yet so fingers crossed…!