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Music Stores (HMV, Virgin, Sunrise)

Towered said:
It's been gone for months now, replaced with a particularly ghetto looking Jean Machine. Ugh. Are there any Sunrise stores left now?

On a related note, you guys will think this is bizarre and hilarious, but HMV of all places, has OPENED A NEW STORE. Yeah, you read that right. It's in Dufferin Mall. I couldn't believe my eyes.
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HMV ain't what it used to be, music takes up a small section of the store. The rest of the store is filled with books, dvds, clothing and novelty items.
 
gabe said:
HMV ain't what it used to be, music takes up a small section of the store. The rest of the store is filled with books, dvds, clothing and novelty items.
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I was in the store today and I say almost half of it was made up of CD's. I was stunned by the anachronistic nature of it.
 
Towered said:
I was in the store today and I say almost half of it was made up of CD's. I was stunned by the anachronistic nature of it.
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Yeah, I haven't bought a CD in years, but according to the stats for last year, of the 27.8 million albums sold in this country, 16.5 million were on CD, 10.9 million were digital sales, and 400,000 were LPs. Lots of Canadians, presumably older, buying CDs. Suprisingly.
 
Skeezix said:
Yeah, I haven't bought a CD in years, but according to the stats for last year, of the 27.8 million albums sold in this country, 16.5 million were on CD, 10.9 million were digital sales, and 400,000 were LPs. Lots of Canadians, presumably older, buying CDs. Suprisingly.
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Not that surprisingly; lots of "older" Canadians have a sound system that benefits from higher quality source material.
 
I'm curious if retailers like HMV actually have a viable long term business plan. It would be a shame to fall into the complacency trap, a la Blockbuster.

I can still see DVD TV series boxed sets being popular as collection items or gifts. I can see movie memorabilia doing ok. Books or biographies related to music and movies will probably do ok. Not sure what else...I am surprised by the volume of CDs still being sold and while it is still a sizeable chunk, I don't see that market growing in the future. With the likelihood of CD sales gradually diminishing, I sure hope these businesses have a turnaround plan in place.
 
CDs deliver the best sound quality. It's impossible to improve on the sound quality of CDs--your ears couldn't tell the difference. Album art is also best appreciated when you hold it in your hands. With that said, I have an iPhone and Bluetooth in the car, so I no longer listen to CDs. The convenience of digital files is unparalleled, and I like tracking song play counts in iTunes to see which artists and songs I listen to the most often.
 
not specifically about Toronto/Canada...
When HMV’s parent in the UK ran into financial trouble, it spun off its Canadian operations to a company called Hilco Capital. They have two divisions: the first winds down companies for liquidation and death; the other is a recovery operation. In the case of HMV Canada, Hilco put the company on the “recovery” track. Inventory was expanded, under-performing stores were closed and other changes were made.

It worked. HMV Canada is now profitable. The plan worked so well that Hilco bought the remaining HMV assets in the UK and beyond (which were totally bankrupt by this time) and implemented the Canadian strategy. That worked, too. HMV UK is back to being the biggest music seller in Britain, blowing past even Amazon.

The company hopes to open 14 more stores before Christmas as well as put more resources into its website which has more than a million active users so far. That’s just in the UK. HMV will see new stores open in Korea and Dubai. More international expansion is planned.
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http://ajournalofmusicalthings.com/hmv-has-big-plans-to-expand-internationally-thanks-canada/
http://ajournalofmusicalthings.com/hmv-has-big-plans-to-expand-internationally-thanks-canada/
 
If I buy music in a store these days it's because I want it as a physical medium for some reason or it's not available from iTunes. I'd mostly like go to Soundscapes or Rotate.

There was a transitional period where I was buying CDs online from places like Dusty Groove because there was no way they were going to turn up in a store here and I wasn't about to spend time looking.

Before that, I went pretty regularly to HMV and Sam's, although physically finding things at Sam's was sometimes a challenge. I also liked a place whose name was just The CD Bar, a little south of HMV on Yonge, which had a lot of imports and you could listen to stuff. It eventually moved to Queen & Spadina. It seems to be a nail salon now.

I also liked Tower for the couple of years it was there. The prices weren't any better than HMV but you could sometimes find some good stuff in the bargain bin or else take advantage of their inconsistent pricing: I remember seeing two copies of the same thing with wildly different prices, just because one happened to be a different pressing with different distribution. They also seemed to get some things in before the other chains, possibly because they were going by the US release schedule, I don't know.
 
the lemur said:
Before that, I went pretty regularly to HMV and Sam's, although physically finding things at Sam's was sometimes a challenge. I also liked a place whose name was just The CD Bar, a little south of HMV on Yonge, which had a lot of imports and you could listen to stuff. It eventually moved to Queen & Spadina. It seems to be a nail salon now.
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I believe the CD Bar became Republic Records when it moved to Queen/Spadina. Fond memories of that place whereby I'd circle items in the NME and get them to order them. Two weeks later... voila!
 
JasonParis said:
I believe the CD Bar became Republic Records when it moved to Queen/Spadina. Fond memories of that place whereby I'd circle items in the NME and get them to order them. Two weeks later... voila!
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Republic! That's right. Was there still that English guy running the place at that point?
 
JasonParis said:
I believe the CD Bar became Republic Records when it moved to Queen/Spadina.
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Not really. The CD Bar didn't move from the Yonge/Dundas spot; it went under. By the time the owner had a winning formula, he was so deep in debt that he couldn't pull the business out of the red. A former staff member at the CD Bar started Republic, but the owner of the CD Bar had nothing to do with it.
 
Bruno Republic said:
Not really. The CD Bar didn't move from the Yonge/Dundas spot; it went under. By the time the owner had a winning formula, he was so deep in debt that he couldn't pull the business out of the red. A former staff member at the CD Bar started Republic, but the owner of the CD Bar had nothing to do with it.
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Interesting, thanks. I thought the owner had moved the business or I guess more accurately that he was working at Republic initially. Do you remember his name or what he did after the CD Bar closed down?
 
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