Physical copies, you won't lose access to the content when lawyers can't agree licensing rights. I was working on an outsourced Microsoft helpdesk when the OD2 DRM was shut down. We got calls even though it was spun off to Nokia. Enough people lost the music they had paid for that I am forever cautious of DRM protected downloads/streaming. I don't get the Vinyl revival. We switched to CD in the late 80's/early 90s because the affordable record decks a teen/early 20's consumer of music were rubbish and would chew up your records. And they made those crossley "portable" record decks look good. Add in the fact that most vinyl in that era was rubbish (thin, too much content squeezed on causing a drop in sound quality etc). Even lower end of the mid range CD set ups just in our price range gave better sound and a generally more satisfying experience. Is there better quality sound than CD? Technically yes. But compared to a reasonable quality Micro/Mini system I can't hear the difference.
Watching this video served as a real trip down memory lane! I remember I would go with my parents every Friday and whilst they were busy trying to pick out a film to watch, I'd be hounding them to rent a PS1 game for me! The first game I ever rented from them was Gex: Enter the Gecko and I was worried about getting in trouble in case I failed to return it in time 😂Thank you for making this video... it was a real BLOCKBUSTER! (I'll see myself out)
In Ireland we actually never had a Blockbuster but Blockbuster used to run a chain over here called XTRAVISION which was essentially the same thing just with a different name. I used to remember always renting out a game for a day to try it out and then buy it if I liked it, sadly they closed in 2021, think their last store was in Swords right beside the Pavilions!
I think vinyl is the epitome of having something physical and tactile. Given the world went the other way with digital, it makes sense people want some tangible again. I dont own any vinyl, but i can see it continue to prosper in the future.
HMV deserves to survive & it's great to see it recover, Vinyl is not just a passing moment, it means so much more! I have Spotify, I love using it on my phone when out, I use it on Alexa, but as much as I love having so much access & choice, it is a physical copy of a record that I cherish & keep! There is just no sound better than vinyl, it is miles above all digital formats as it is a far warmer sound! That's not to say you cannot have quality digital sound as Alexia combined with fine all-around sound speakers proves you can! Yet it's a good record system that delivers the best actual sound. I spent £1400 on a Record System, Amp and speakers, it's more expensive than anything else I own in my house, yet I see it as the best money I ever spent. Digital tracks while being the same as the titles and the artist you get on an LP, are still those you can not hold and thus you do not feel you own them. So, regardless if you pay for Spotify Premium, which I do, it never feels like you own a collection no matter how much you can listen to those tracks. You cannot pass on a collection and you cannot sell it on either if you choose. A digital track is renting a moment of time, and even if you place some tracks on your Laptop, it still requires you to keep moving those tracks to more storage or another laptop when the first one gets too old. Yet with Vinyl, you buy it, you look after it and you store it in protective sleeves. When you play it you hear every aspect of what the music artist intended, every instrument, which is something digital music seldom does because it is depressed for storage and that means less quality. HMV has been saved because of Vinyl and it's great that it has, we have lost too much of our musical heritage when it comes to retail, Tower Records, and Our Price for instance! CDs were never the replacement for Vinyl, they were just a different format that was easier to store and streaming is the same concept! Well, done to the new owners of HMV, I welcome their input and in saving a brand that we need to exist and one that keeps records accessible. Now, we just need something like Top of the Pops to return to, so the interest in the charts will regain which will help more existing & new artists be able to afford to perform great music.
I was born in the 70s and its great that vinyl has made a comeback. There's just no replacing it as physical media and as my Bro is often telling me, sounds much better than digital. Well done HMV! You're back where you belong.
We have a large one in Exeter city center, but i would be surprised if it is here this time next year. Most people (including myself) walk in, walk around looking at things a walk out without buying anything. It's more of a museum of the past if anything.
Nice video. I can see why people are being drawn back to vinyl. Firstly it’s a human instinct to want to collect things and although the move to digital has added great convenience it also starved that passion people have to collect music. I used to spend much of my time listening to dance music in specialist independent shops and would sift through hundreds of records or ask the owner to play some of the new releases from the wall behind. Then there were the hot releases which when played in the shop through booming loudspeakers would get people buzzing and raising their hands to buy it before they missed out on the last copy. This was a social activity and each purchase connected you to the piece of music with a fun memory. Secondly, if you are only going to have one music media survive it makes sense for it to be vinyl. The large 12” sleeve provides plenty of real estate for great artwork which CD cannot match. The tactile act of dropping a needle into the record groove and hearing the sound can’t be matched by MP3 or CD mediums. The final factor is to do with scarcity and value and this ties back to the first point about collecting. A CD can be produced in the home on a low cost drive, an MP3 can be replicated perfectly and shared with millions (perhaps not legally) so these mediums simply cannot hold value in the same way vinyl can.
Having worked for the company/s since 2005 I agree with a lot of what you've raised here... hmv did attempt a digital music store, it also tried to tie it into a social network of sorts but it was perhaps too niche. Personally I feel like Netflix and video streaming has had a tougher impact, music has a try before you buy element, if you watch a film you might not want to watch it again for a while. The mix of what the store offers has changed massively and is where the company is turning the corner, if it solely sold music and films that wouldn't be the case. I've also worked for MVC and back then (early 00s) HMV were seen as the big evil juggernaut, amazing what can happen in 20 years!
wait, people still use cash? Why? Back home in Hong Kong I literally never pulled out a note. EVER. In UK I find I can now get by fine with Apple Pay. I don’t think I’ll miss it.
Cashless certainly is the way forward but I believe it'll be a while to implement such a change, especially in the western market when there are many concerns over the control of people's personal finances. I'm not entirely sure on the cost of storing cash physically for a lot of financial instituitons, but storing it electronically would be much the same if not more as banks will have to invest more into better cybersecurity initiatives, and stronger infrastructure. Still though, very good video and I look forward to seeing what you upload next!
I have never downloaded anything digital. I always want a physical copy . I almost always try to buy-in in store to try and keep people in jobs even if it’s a couple quid more
My band did a gig for hmv Winchester, they put us in the middle of the shopping centre and we played to some college students sat in a soft play area - we were facing a primark. The CDs we gave them to sell were faulty, we used the wrong file type so none of our songs actually worked, only the sound of me knocking down a wall with a cango hammer and 2 of our bassist’s GarageBand demos
CBDC’s will be the final nail in our collective coffins. Resist this or have every aspect of your life controlled. Scary prospect but the normies will be bumming the life out of it.
I do mostly use my card for transactions but I wouldn’t eradicate cash entirely. Personally I like having cash to tip at restaurants, (if the service is good) my barber and of course giving cash to my friends kids on Christmas/birthdays. The idea of having every single transaction documented is one that I’m not too keen on either! Great video as always, keep it up!
Here in Canada ,we had them as well. At many malls,they had competition from Sunrise Rec and they were often both in the same malls. Eventually, HMV declared that if the malls renewed the leases, then HMV would leave. The malls made Sunrise leave . Three years later ,HMV Canada declared bankruptcy and Sunrise returned to the malls . I love irony .
HMV's decline was down to poor management. In the mid 90's they introduced fast-track management schemes, promoting shockingly bad managers with next to no people skills and zero logistical experience. One year, my store saw a 92% annual staff turnover due to one such manager, consisting of all manner of bullying tactics, while also removing staff breaks. This resulting in a drop in morale and losing good, highly experienced long-term staff. The stores were also altered in running options, in the past we had greater store-level buying flexibility for our local customers, losing this option again lost business. Resulting in less qualified sales assistants, incompetent management, less range and hence a poorer shopping experience. Head office fared even worse, with terrible (central order) buying decisions that were no longer overruled at store legel, nepotism, job protection and further incompetence, especially with the rollout of the online element. Rather than create a seperate facility, they distributed online orders from the main Oxford St store, sales assistants with baskets pulling from store level. This caused all manner of catastrophes at store sales level. With the closure.of level 1 and shockingly bad running of the head office games dept, the accessories buyers that were promoted yet didn't have a clue. Bad decision after bad decision, there was no way to get rid of the rot, the chain had to go and it all got blamed on the internet and changes at retail. There were indeed changes at retail that affected things, but with idiots in charge, it all had to go, a shame for the consumer. I loved shopping in HMV and very much enjoyed my time working there in the 90's, had some incredible years there before it all fell to pieces.
@Businessify you are still into streaming?! So you will NEVER own your music and streaming services can decide what you listen to! “Great”! Our future is in great hands….🥴😩😩 I am sure though that the vinyl resurgence won’t take much longer. Vinyl buyers are generally older men and, like me, started buying again about 10 years ago, and we are the last generation growing up with vinyl. Most of us though start to experience some vinyl fatigue though with the endless stream of useless, low quality mastered and overpriced vinyl releases.
If I’m totally honest… I’m not much of a music fan as I used to be and Spotify is my go to for casual listening while working…! I find the convenience of £9.99 for some background noise a month enough sadly.
@@BusinessifyYT ah and for movies you go to Netflix or Prime? You realize that with streaming and the all digital movement we destroy our cultural heritage? Nothing tangible will be left for future generations and ownership is disappearing.
@@BusinessifyYT I hear you. As thanks to that giant the specialty shop disappeared. Especially those selling physical media with the exception of a few specialty outlets with music/movies and games in Germany just across the border so I mostly buy my physical media there and for music I have 5 excellent specialized record/cd stores in a 500 meter radius here in my hometown. But I realize not everyone is that lucky.
There's a massive benefit in owning a copy of an album or movie. Just look at home some services have wiped access to TV and films when distribution rights have changed hands. Oh, that film you bought on your playstation is no longer yours.
I will admit I do use digital to buy my movies and music but at the same time I really do hope hmv do survive because it takes me back to being a kid as a 80s kid going in there and spending my pocket money on cassette tapes like Michael Jackson bad album and others before my parents got me a hi-fi with cd compartment even today just coming back into HMV and just seen CDs. I picked up as a child just takes me back now and why hmv needs to keep going
