Just over two years ago as the recession really started to bite, Woolworths went into administration - we wrote about it on our Sky News Business blog.
For the music industry, it was a sign.. only a few years earlier, Woolies was THE place to sell singles, and was one of the main distributers of CDs to other shops through its EUK business nationwide. The closure of both businesses also took a few independent record labels out with it.. Zavvi, born out of the Virgin Megastores suffered from EUK's demise, and it soon followed Woolies, leaving tens of thousands out of work. It was clear that people, especially teens, were turning their backs on physical music, opting for digital formats. Now, unless you've been asleep since 2000 (or don't care) none of this should be headline news, but it did leave only one music retailer on the high street, HMV..
So two years on, and just before Christmas HMV published their figures, It made a pre-tax loss of £41.3million in the 6 months to October 2010, compared to a £24.9m loss last year, and they saw a 10% fall in the sale of CDs - on this news, shares slumped by 20% - It sounded like the final nail in the coffin of high street music sales and this was before the heavy December snow.
Today its been announced that HMV will close 40 of its 285 stores over the next 12 months - so that's it for physical music sales in the UK, unless you count the supermarkets - and the danger with them, they only stock records that they *think* are going to sell well. That's fine for Michael Buble, Westlife, Take That and alike - but not really good for music. Singles sell well digitally, albums do not. With nowhere to buy a physical album, sales will slow even further. Only ONE album released in 2010 sold more than a million copies in the UK - Take That's Progress. What about non-mainstream music? Up and coming artists? Acts that aren't signed to major labels with healthy promotional budgets? Who is going to headline the future music festivals?
HMV published their annual Poll Of Polls yesterday - combining the polls from the likes of Q, Mojo, NME, Kerrang!, Uncut, Mixmag, Wire, The Fly, Hot Press, GQ and Time Out as well as online music sites to find out the UK critics albums of the year (I did something similar on a huge Excel Spreadsheet last year, they've saved me the trouble!!) - this list as posted on Record Of The Day here.
What is once again interesting about these polls, is combining them to sales (when I've got the figures I will). Arcade Fire won the poll of polls by a mile - but it has yet to sell 300k records in the UK.
The question is, how many of these albums will you be able to get in the supermarkets?
The BBC is also counting down to its annual acts and artists to watch this year in its Sound Of 2011 - again, how many of these will have albums stocked by Tesco's, Sainsbury's etc?
THE 2010 HMV POLL OF POLLS TOP 50
1. Arcade Fire / The Suburbs
2. The National / High Violet
3. LCD Soundsystem / This Is Happening
4. Beach House / Teen Dream
5. Janelle Monae / Archandroid
6. Vampire Weekend / Contra
7. Yeasayer / Odd Blood
8. Gorillaz / Plastic Beach
9. Caribou / Swim
10. Ariel Pink / Before Today
11. Kanye West / My Beautiful Dark, Twisted Fantasy
12. Joanna Newsom / Have One On Me
13. Gill Scott Heron / I'm New Here
14. Sleigh Bells / Treats
15. Foals / Total Life Forever
16. Villagers / Becoming A Jackal
17. Laura Marling / I Speak Because I Can
18. These New Puritans / Hidden
19. Black Keys / Brothers
20. Deerhunter / Halcyon Digest
21. Hot Chip / One Life Stand
22. Robyn / Body Talk
23. John Grant / Queen Of Denmark
24. Paul Weller / Wake Up The Nation
25. MGMT / Congratulations
26. Avi Buffalo / Avi Buffalo
27. Manic Street Preachers / Postcards From A Young Man
28. Four Tet / There Is Love In You
29. Grinderman / Grinderman 2
30. Robert Plant / Band Of Joy
31. Warpaint / The Fool
32. Big Boi / Sir Luscious Left Foot
33. Flying Lotus / Cosmogramma
34. Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate / Ali And Toumani
35. Broken Bells / Broken Bells
36. Best Coast / Crazy For You
37. Marina and the Diamonds / Family Jewels
38. Oneohtrix Point Never / Returnal
39. Edwyn Collins / Losing Sleep
40. Glasser / Ring
41. Swans / My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope
42. Field Music / Field Music
43. Zola Jesus / Stridulum II
44. Steve Mason / Boys Outside
45. Deftones / Diamond Eyes
46. Plan B / The Defamation Of Strickland Banks
47. Neil Young / Le Noise
48. MIA / Maya
49. Take That / Progress
50. Drums / Drums
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