HMV Gone, but not forgotten
It is not only HMV that has a problem...
http://www.whathifi.com/news/virgin-france-music-chain-declared-insolvent
Everyone seems to forget that the prices HMV charged for CDs and videos (all formats) were more or less typical of most high-street retailers until online shopping came along with a completely different set of overheads. 'Our Price' wasn't much cheaper, if at all (remember them?). Smiths and Woolworths were a bit, but they had nowhere near the same choice.
I loved browsing round HMV. It was a proper, big, music and video store. Where else could you go that had such a huge selection of artists and genres? If you wanted anything but Top 40 albums, it was pretty much the only place in town. Well, in my town, anyway.
Soon there'll be nothing left of our high-streets except coffee-shops, pound-shops, clothes shops and charity shops. But I don't really know what the answer is.
And all those shops have gone or been struggling. All the retailers that have gone recently all had poor online sites, I just can't believe the people running these businesses did not change.
Unfortunately limited choice will mean we could all pay more for music in the long run. For that reason alone I hope they survive.
I don't think that CD's are about to die anytime soon as many still have players at home and in their cars. DVD sales may have cooled since the arrival of Blu-ray, but many people have invested in players, so I think there is mileage in both formats.
May be we will see the demise of physical media when download quality can be assured and sufficient bandwidth is available, but some how I doubt it...
Personally I will miss them if they go, a little bit of me time browsing through the selections will be lost.
Having said that, Tower Records in Picadilly was simply the best ever! 
Not forgotten
Having said that, Tower Records in Picadilly was simply the best ever! Not forgotten
If browsing was the big benefit of HMV, then they should have somehow marketed it and exploited that aspect.
But without the opportunity to listen to any CD that you pick up, how can you make a buying choice without already knowing what the CD sounds like?
On Amazon etc, you can browse and listen, follow links from people's "must have" playlists, and also see the " If you like A, then why not listen to B, C and D artists".
If you then like what you hear, it's a simple "Add to Basket" or wishlist.
HMV was a dinosaur waiting to be picked off as it limped towards the mirage of a waterhole.
A real pity, and means that I'll have nowhere to hide when the Cobalts head off to the shops next time. H&M and Dorothy Perkins do not have the same appeal.
(And I'm too old to hang out in Hollister - I'd get arrested 
Really bored of hearing how CD is dying?
Rega are about to release a revised Planet CDP, Naim have just released the updated CD5i - now tell me CD is dying.
Why would I want to download a horrible MP3 or AAC when I can buy the CD, rip it to ALAC then have best of both worlds.
I really think CD is here for a long time to come yet!
Just a shame it hasnt been used to its full potential by mastering engineers apart from a few!
I have some great sounding CDS, they are convenient too.
My whole CD library is on my Hard Drive and streamed to my DAC for convenience, but a lot of time I put a CD in my CDP!
If browsing was the big benefit of HMV, then they should have somehow marketed it and exploited that aspect.
But without the opportunity to listen to any CD that you pick up, how can you make a buying choice without already knowing what the CD sounds like?
On Amazon etc, you can browse and listen, follow links from people's "must have" playlists, and also see the " If you like A, then why not listen to B, C and D artists".
If you then like what you hear, it's a simple "Add to Basket" or wishlist.
HMV was a dinosaur waiting to be picked off as it limped towards the mirage of a waterhole.
A real pity, and means that I'll have nowhere to hide when the Cobalts head off to the shops next time. H&M and Dorothy Perkins do not have the same appeal.
(And I'm too old to hang out in Hollister - I'd get arrested
I really liked the listening posts although choice was limited and I didn't really enjoy having to stand whilst listening. They could have exploited that idea more and set up some sofas, started selling coffee etc. Then again what do I know, didn't do borders any good did it? 
As for hearing before you can hear about 50% of cds on spotify, then just decide which ones you like enough to buy, or don't bother and just stream spotify.
[quote=MajorFubar Soon there'll be nothing left of our high-streets except coffee-shops, pound-shops, clothes shops and charity shops. [/quote]
With the exception of Truro thats nailed Cornwalls towns bang on the head.
Give it time and all high street shops will be gone. Lets face it Tescos sell pretty much everything baring Cars and Houses*, give em a while and they will sort out that anaw.
* Unless I'm mistaken ?.
I avoid our local Tescos because its full of knuckle dragging low lifes (well our local one is ). Plus I disagree with how all the big player supermarkets are allowed to dominate. Its not too difficult to spread things around a little. Aldi and Lidl is my shoppie.
Take Austria for instance. Spar / Target / Aldi etc are not allowed to sell news papers and fags , therefore the Tobaconists/news agents can still earn a crust. Ok tis a small thing you get my drift.
@Stevebrock, yer post disappeared ??.
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How is CD dead, and why would I want to pay £7.99 for a compressed download when I can get an uncompressed CD, ripped to lossless and get to keep a hard copy which can be sold on in the future (if I so desire) for £3 - £5 ?
Also not sad to see HMV go. It's always been a greedy company that deserves all it gets.