HMV closures mark a sad milestone
author: ethan butterfield | a&c writer
Stores across the country will close April 30. | Photo credit Wikimedia Commons.
Is the physical media age at its end?
HMV, a juggernaut of the music sales industry, is now closing its doors forever. Honestly, it may just be a store, but it’s a store that even today is seeing a surge in sales just as it has throughout its 31-year run in Canada. This is due to the announcement that the business was going into receivership back on Jan. 27 of this year. Still though, it’s interesting to see that people are still dedicated to purchasing hard copies of music at all.
The unfortunate truth of it is, this is something that everyone saw coming. The digital age has become too fast and too reliable that going with anything else, especially regarding music and music streaming, is just obsolete. Nobody really cares for the hard copies anymore, just like books. With Kindles now becoming more popular, frankly, it wouldn’t be at all shocking if Chapters was the next to go on the great river of Closed Indefinitely. As I mentioned earlier, however, there has been a resurgence in sales during the liquidation period that HMV has been going through, but certainly not enough to repay the $39 million dollars in debt that it has accumulated. Not to mention the steadily declining revenue that the company has been seeing ever since 2012, from $266 million to $193 million.
The departure of HMV has left room open for another company to move in and pick up the pieces. On Feb. 26, a company chain under the name Sunrise Records will be taking over at the 70 locations formerly occupied by the music titan, as well, will be offering 1,340 HMV employees around 700 positions in their business. Perhaps physical records have more life in them than originally thought. You can certainly colour this writer optimistic for the future. Even if Sunrise Records doesn’t remain around for very long, it’s still nice to know that the loss of HMV isn’t a complete loss.
So, while stores are still open at for the month, get in on the great deals that are available now. Deals including movies now ranging around 50 per cent off, as well as music being anywhere from 30-50 per cent off. Unfortunately, despite the amazing deals available, gift cards and HMV points cards were no longer useable in store as of March 1, according to the official HMV site.
With that being said, HMV has had a significant run in the music industry. Having been awarded the 2006 award for Canadian Music Retailer and taking over the Virgin Megastore in 2005 in order to become one of the biggest music-based sales companies in the country, one can say it’s been a good ride.
HMV stores across Canada are expected to officially close on the fast approaching date of April 30.
