My thoughts on the death of HMV

It was with mixed feelings that I read about the news of HMV going into administration. On one hand, I have fond memories of my time working there while I was studying for my Multimedia Computing degree at Anglia Ruskin University, of the friends I had there even before I started and who are still working there right now. I hope very much they find themselves on their feet again very soon. The level of enthusiasm and hard-work the job engendered I'm sure will lead to better things...

On the other hand, I can't believe HMV lasted so long. They'd done their best in the past few years, fighting the inevitable decline of the music retail industry by slowly replacing CDs and Vinyl with DVDs and Games, then iPod accessories, and finally - when we knew it was all over - MP3 players and iPod docks. They'd even tried to get in on the used videogames market in the past few years - a ploy which no doubt saved GAME's skin when it faced the chopping block last year.

As someone who consumes a metric f**k-ton of media on a daily basis, HMV has become a smaller and smaller part of my life. In the past couple of years my visits to the place had become almost annuallised, a couple of days after Christmas with a handful of gift cards. This year I got iTunes and Amazon Vouchers, which suited me just fine. I bought a couple of things off my Amazon wish list and tore through my App Store credit with Comics, Audiobooks and iOS games.

The world is going digital. It makes so much sense for content providers because it eliminates the used-goods market. Hell, people can't even lend music to each other now. Not that they'd buy it anyway, because they can just stream music into their earholes via Spotify. Netflix and Lovefilm deliver movies and TV shows on tap and if they don't have it, iTunes does. I download videogames from Steam, Xbox Live and PSN regularly - I'll be surprised if the next Xbox has a disc drive at all, especially after this. Do the console manufacturers seriously need to stress about having a high street presence if the shops selling their machines can't stay in business anymore?

Where does the high street retailer come in then? Gifts maybe? Those that are less internet savvy will have to go to Tescos instead, but with all their staff being replaced by machines, where will all those rendundant HMV employees go? I wish you all the very best of luck guys...