HMV Overtake Amazon in Physical Music Sales

Not only is HMV the ONLY store I go to for physical products--I guess I was so used to stepping into their London stores to buy records, now I buy online from the same store and the products are shipped to me in Tanzania. When they went into receivership three years ago, their online sales was discontinued. I was so gutted when this happened.

Well, not only are they back in business full swing now, it looks like they’re overtaking their competitors Amazon. Which reminds me: I’ll also be talking about the just revealed counterfeit products report regarding Amazon CDs.

According to an article published in Retail Gazette, HMV has reestablished itself in the physical entertainment market, overtaking Amazon to become the UK’s largest music retailer.

New data from Kantar Worldpanel has revealed that HMV, which went into administration just three years ago, has rebuilt its retail operation and is proving to rival the market leaders.

In the 12 weeks to September 25 HMV attracted 41,000 new customers and growing its share of the physical entertainment market by 3.1 per cent.

Big titles like the debut album from Christine and the Queens, which sold two thirds of its total copies in HMV, along with Adele’s 25 which sold 29 per cent of all copies in store, were responsible for the success of the retailer’s music department.

Read the full article on Retail Gazette!

And now for that sneaky report on Amazon: As much as 23% of all CD's sold on Amazon are counterfeit, according to multiple investigations.  We first reported on the problem two weeks ago after an alert was sent out by indie music trade group A2IM.

Two weeks ago the The Association of Independent Music has issued a strong warning regarding a "serious counterfeit operation selling large numbers of CDs" using Amazon’s FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) system.

Read the full article on HypeBot.com

Well, that's your lot from the world of music from my end. I hope it helps you make an informed decision as to which store you buy from the next time you're on the market for CDs.

JOETT