HMV Chief Executive Simon Fox has said this week that CD’S could be “Obsolete” and “Die Out” in 5 years time. Fox said that the market would just be worth £300m in 3 years time. This can be compared to the market being with £900m in 2010.
Fox did say however that "There will be a place for CDs, but it's difficult to see out more than five years”. The sales of CD’S were at their peak in 2004 when sales reached a staggering 162 million. Last year however, sales were just 98.5 million.
Funnily enough it was just last week that I was referring to the high street book chain Waterstones and them axing their 3 for 2 book offer in stores and also that the demand for a physical book these days is dramatically low, due to the generation of digital books on e readers.
Another coincidental fact is that Waterstones and HMV are owned by the same company now and it is transparently obvious that now both of these once leading high street names are now struggling through every day of their existence. This week also, HMV confirmed they have had a 15% sales slump and I for one am simply not surprised.
2 years ago when we stepped into what was then the high street’s leading Entertainment store even though it had competition from the now defunct Music Zone, Fopp and even Andy’s Records... when we walked through the doors our instant reaction was that of being slightly overwhelmed by the racks upon racks of CD’S filed neatly by genre and charts. Now on the other hand we can walk through the doors and the instant disappointment is visible due to there being one or two racks of chart CD’S and hardly any of the less commercial kind, including that of Jazz and Rock and Roll. Instead, greeted by racks upon racks of DVD’S, Computer games and a glass display full of MP3 players and iPods. HMV themselves have admitted that now under 15% of the stores are now dedicated to that of CD’S due to them “not selling.”
Either HMV are as delusional as David Cameron or I am just missing something completely? the reason CD’S “aren’t selling” in HMV, MR Fox is simply because nobody in their right mind shall pay average of £12.99 for a newly released CD. You seem to have completely lost touch with reality. Amazon are selling newly released CD’S for a standard price of £8.93 or less... so just simply why would anybody feel the need to pay an extra £6 or so for the sheer fun of it? HMV’S business model is just all wrong, it isn’t just the ridiculous and diabolical prices of compact discs but the same for DVD box sets. The likes of the successful drama 24 can be bought on DVD in HMV for a grand total of £90 (I admit to paying that for mine years a go) but, it is still at that price to date... yet on Amazon it is £34.99! something doesn’t seem right does it? The stores are looking dated and filled with gangs of teenagers fighting over each other to have a go at the in store games consoles. There was nothing once like searching for your desired CD title by walking up and down the section’s int he store, searching for the music type and genre then flicking through the selections with your fingers. It just isn’t the same buying with a few clicks of a computer mouse... yet it is ever more satisfying knowing that you have saved a considerable percentage.
The likes of iTunes has changed the music industry completely... yet as popular as that is, iTunes make their money mostly by people purchasing individual songs rather than full albums. I personally cannot abide purchasing albums off iTunes, I have an account to use with my iPad and the only time I have ever bought full albums is if I cannot purchase a physical copy as sometimes artists who are on independent labels do not release a physical copy due to the costs. iTunes is unbelievably convenient to purchase the odd track here and there, but there is nothing I prefer more to do than ripping CD’S to my computer and importing them into my iTunes library! I’m an avid music listener and have around 8000 albums in my library and I have approximately bought just 2 of those albums fully, digitally. The rest I have the physical copies of. 
There is just nothing like having a physical & real album in your hands... the anticipation of putting it in your CD player and pressing play, gently sliding out the booklet and carefully flicking through the pages, reading over the lyrics and the thank yous from the artist. I bought Melanie C’s new album “The Sea” last week (had to plug it!) for me, album of the year without doubt, beautiful sound and a beautiful read and artwork which you will only see if you buy the real thing, a feeling which you shan’t get if you just purchase a digital version... it just simply isn’t the same. The demand may not be as high, but the market IS still there. Some people just buy single, individual songs these days and don’t buy full albums... but for all us music lovers I am sure you are sharing in my passion for purchasing a physical CD!
Whether it pops through my letter box in an envelope or otherwise I shall be continuing to enjoy my music with the sheer hope that CD’S shan’t be going anywhere. What I do know is that I shan’t be giving HMV any more custom and even though I am a supporter of the high street, if the likes of HMV think it is acceptable to charge 10 times the price you can pay online... then I for one think it wont be long until we say goodbye to His Master’s Voice and if £90 for a box set is anything to go by, then good riddance!
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