Music
HMV has stayed afloat by not selling music
by Josiah Hughes
January 27, 2015
International music and movie retailer HMV has had a real rough go since the digital revolution. With so many former consumers now resorting to streaming and illegal downloading for their music and movies, the company has resorted to everything from live music to layoffs in an effort to stay afloat. As it turns out, thinking outside the box is working well for the chain.
A new report from the Financial Post suggests that HMV is hanging on by, well, not selling music.
According to the company’s CEO, their highest selling item has been a $24.99 pizza cutter made to look like the NCC-1701 Enterprise ship from Star Trek. Of course, Trekkies aren’t the only niche market they’re reaching out to — HMV racks feature gimmicky toys and novelty items from a variety of pop cultural staples, not to mention their brony-friendly plush animals, mall-punk shirt selection and, in some stores, a growing vinyl section (which surely confuses moms when they’re placed in such close proximity to the Grumpy Cat wall calendars).
Nick Williams, the company’s CEO, offered some explanatory businessman-speak to the Post. “We call it brand-stretch,” he said, adding, “Our retail business is stable and growing, but it is the new income streams that are driving most of that.”
According to the report, 45 per cent of HMV’s sales are DVDs, with music accounting for 30 per cent and the other 25 per cent coming from its miscellaneous items. The latter category is expected to rise as music sales shrink.
In other words, HMV has succeeded by cramming a Spencer’s Gifts and Hot Topic (or, for a more Canadian reference, D-Tox) into the shell of what we once knew as HMV. And while that’s sure to satisfy the Orange Julius-slurping mall-dwellers and their various subcultural niches, it also solidifies the notion that HMV has lost its power as an iconic music merchant.
