Secret Curmudgeon: Sad at HMV's demise but shopping makes me physically sick (From Surrey Comet)

Secret Curmudgeon: Sad at HMV's demise but shopping makes me physically sick

7:00am Sunday 20th January 2013 in News

So another hole has been made in Kingston’s town centre shops with the news that HMV has gone into administration.

It is sad but, I’m afraid, not surprising. His Master’s demise had been on the cards for a long time.

Many commentators have said this week that the business failed because “it failed to adapt to the download generation”.

Failed to adapt? And how exactly could it have done that? If one wants (and I’m talking like the Queen here, just for the hell of it) to buy music online one goes to iTunes, doesn’t one?

And if you want to get free music (back to normal now) you go to a site such as Spotify. How could HMV have fought that? It’s a different thing altogether.

It flogged things you can touch – CDs, DVDs, etc. Do you remember those days? Owning music you can touch, rather than a list of songs on a computer screen?

I admit I’ve bought a lot of music online so I guess I’m part of the problem. A small cog in HMV’s demise.

For me it was a combination of not having to go out shopping – an activity that normally makes me physically sick – coupled with a decision to declutter by getting rid of piles of CDs and DVDs.

And the fact I’m buying something of inferior sound quality to CDs (an MP3) is something I have to live with to reach my decluttering Shangri-La.

The consumer society – where people fill their houses with “stuff” – could be coming to an end. And in a world where many people have nothing, that’s surely a good thing.

But, having said all this, it’s still sad to see HMV go.

I wonder what mascot Nipper – buried in Kingston – would think about it all? Probably nothing. He’s a dog.