Last week, they announced that Simon Fox was leaving, (with just a year’s salary for loss of office - which he loses if he gets a job within a year). Does that mean he was pushed, or did he jump? Clearly they had Trevor Moore lined up for some time, as Trevor resigned from Jessops on 13th July, and on the 19th it was announced he had a new job to go to, (but declined to say where).

Then just a few days later, their other main executive Directors announces he is leaving, but will stay on until a replacement is found - yet 24 hours later, the replacement is announced.

Something suggests that bigger things are going on behind the scenes. Anyone like to suggest some theories?

I don't think this is exclusively an HMV issue, most upper-echelon staff changes in any publicly held company have to be carefully handled so as to minimise any potential damage to the share price. This is why these top executive posts come with such long notice periods and golden parachutes, so that when the time comes, replacements can be announced simultaneously with the departure notices, and why we always get the same safe "spending more time with my family" type reasons for moving on, as opposed to "I killed the share price, alienated the board, argued with the CEO, and they couldn't wait to get rid of me...", or "I wanted to get off this trainwreck before it took me down with it..."

No I think it's more that retail is dying and music more than most (downloads). I wrote Simon Fox when he took over, suggesting a meeting as I know just how to save the company. No reply. Vile Pervert factor? Their loss.

Rather like Eurovision. Weak and bad executives care more about their images and tabloid headlines (ditto politicians) than actually doing good for company/industry/TV ratings.

Interesting piece by DavidBalfour in today's Record of the Day magazine. I hope he doesn't mind me circulating it:
Can Moore reverse HMV’s fortunes? It’s
certainly not going to be easy. Now that
the era of HMV Live and Waterstone’s is
over however, Moore will be forced to focus
on HMV’s core retail business and find
solutions within that business.
2
It came as little surprise when HMV
announced the imminent departure of its
chief executive Simon Fox and finance
director David Wolffe this week.
In the first three years of his six year
tenure, Fox repositioned HMV and
modernised by increasing its in-store product
lines and expanding its business beyond
its traditional high street stores. Most
significantly, this included the acquisition
of a live business which included the
Hammersmith Apollo, as well as investment
in UK digital music company 7digital.
Where Fox’s acquisition strategy seemed
sensible enough, things have since fallen
apart. So burdensome has the company’s
debt become that it has now been forced
to sell some of the best performing parts
of its business, the recently-acquired
Hammersmith Apollo being the key example,
simply to stave off financial collapse. With
HMV’s share price also having fallen more
than 95% in the last few years, Fox’s
departure doesn’t come as a surprise.
We’ve come to associate Fox over time
with his bullish statements about growth and
future profitability that seemed to bear little
relation to the actual performance and results
of HMV. We’ve lost count of the number
of times when he assured us “everything
is all right”, when the hard figures seemed
to say exactly the opposite. Nevertheless,
commentators such as the Financial Times
this week seemed relatively uncritical about
Fox’s tenure over the company. They pointed
to the difficulties faced by music retail as
a whole as being every bit as significant in
HMV’s decline than Fox’s own performance.
If Fox therefore did a reasonable job
under impossible conditions, what hope does
his successor - former Jessops executive
Trevor Moore - have? He joins a company
which today posted annual losses of £38.6m.
Even with a favourable spin to remove
‘exceptional costs’, the loss is £16.2m. In
his outgoing statement however, Simon
Fox predicted that HMV will make a £10m
profit in the next financial year. He added
“Although we have clearly been through a
turbulent period, our financial position is now
stable thanks to the support of our suppliers,
banks and colleagues”. Can we believe Fox
in this? We know how unreliable many of his
previous predictions have proved to be. That
said, Trevor Moore is undoubtedly inheriting
a company that is more stable than it was
six months ago. Nor is it deluded about how
tough ensuring its survival will be. HMV’s
results statement was also accompanied by
some very sober and realistic language. It
predicted that “The high street physical audio
market is expected to decline in value by
approximately 20%. The Directors expect this
trend to continue over the next three years.”
HMV is clearly in no doubt that there
won’t be a sudden resurgence of high
street CD sales, neither in terms of units
or value. But in predicting that the physical
audio market will still have a value of £400m
in 2014, it’s saying that there’s still an
important business here. Combined with
a visual market that should still be worth
£1.3bn in 2014, it’s a fight worth fighting.
Can Moore reverse HMV’s fortunes?
It’s certainly not going to be easy. Now
that the era of HMV Live and Waterstone’s
is over however, Moore will be forced to
focus on HMV’s core retail business and
find solutions within that business. This
has to be a good thing. Whilst Fox looked
beyond traditional retail for growth, we feel
that HMV’s core retail operation suffered
under his stewardship. We’ve been hard
pressed to find any one with a positive story
of visiting an HMV store in recent years,
whilst negative tales have been easy to find.
We’d like to think that if HMV can reconnect
with customers by improving its service
and looking hard at its stores, it can also
improve its image and prospects. The music
industry has always wanted to see HMV
survive and prosper, yet it’s been hard for us
to be enthusiastic the way HMV was being
directed. Perhaps this clean slate offered to
Moore can mark the beginning of resurgence
in HMV’s fortunes?

Tesco's doing a burn-your-own-cd of your choice at low cost in a few outlets.

HMV is on a losing wicket: ugly stores, high prices, poor business decisions (Hammersmith Apollo for 1).

Warners declared sales downturn yesterday, EMI the other day. Less and less physical recorded music being bought and what there is, can be had online for significantly less than a high street shop would charge.

JK's right,retail's in the death throes.

HMV need at least to have their own high profile record label , like back in the days of the good old 78`s , to stamp any authority, otherwise, they look like just another flagging retail outlet.


AH.

This thread has inspired me to contact Trevor Moore and go over for a coffee to give him the wealth of my opinion.

I think retail has screwed up dreadfully in the past 30 years - and it's all my fault! By coming up with the idea in 1975 to send free copies of singles to selected dealers which then became SOR, I removed the need for shop keepers to know the appetites and tastes of their customers. Why bother when you can send unsold stock back?

I feel guilty. Unintentional (as with so many decisions we make); and repercussions are something that have only dawned on me since I turned 50 or so.

JK2006 wrote:
This thread has inspired me to contact Trevor Moore and go over for a coffee to give him the wealth of my opinion.

I think retail has screwed up dreadfully in the past 30 years - and it's all my fault! By coming up with the idea in 1975 to send free copies of singles to selected dealers which then became SOR, I removed the need for shop keepers to know the appetites and tastes of their customers. Why bother when you can send unsold stock back?

I feel guilty. Unintentional (as with so many decisions we make); and repercussions are something that have only dawned on me since I turned 50 or so.

Good luck with getting an opportunity to take coffee with Trevor Moore. As a suffering shareholder of HMV, I have a vesting interest in HMV surviving and recovering! (As well as an emotional desire, by the fact for a number of years they have been the best music retailer in the UK).

In recent years HMV have de-stocked music, which in my opinion is the main, (if not sole) reason to exist. It’s understandable, but there is now a solution, and that is in-store CD, (and DVD and Games), burning. Tesco are trialling it, and seeing the end result, 99.9% of punters wouldn’t spot the difference from in-store manufactured product to factory supplied versions. By installing this solution HMV will be able to offer virtually any availbale CD, DVD or disc based game. People who want physical copies instantly could visit their HMV store and be satisfied. Most of the stock holding and logistical issues, (and costs), would be minimised allowing for greater profits - as well as turnover.

Something of this scale is needed to re-energise the staff. Staff training certainly needs ramping up. They need to emulate Majestic Wine, where they seem to have staff who are enthusiastic and knowledgeable about their products. Staff need to be seconded to (and from) record companies. When I was a retailer, we had annual visits to Record Company Distribution centres and pressing plants. All my senior staff saw how vinyl was pressed and cassette tapes were made. Many had visited recording studios. How many HMV store Managers, let alone staff, know how a recording is made? They need to bring knowledge and enthusiasm to the shop floor.

They also need to engage with their customers. In store PAs are a start, but do they actually know who attended the PA? Finally, they need to find a better way to cross media between digital and physical. Many of the biggest digital music consumers are actually big physical customer too. How about when you pre-order a physical new release in-store, you get a digital instant gratification download code? (It doesn’t just have to be the biggest digital retailer that does that).

If HMV see themselves as a technology store in future, the in-store burning solution would complement this perfectly, as it would free up floor space for more technology solutions.

Agree with all that Dixie; perhaps we should go and see Trevor as a joint team!

JK2006 wrote:
Agree with all that Dixie; perhaps we should go and see Trevor as a joint team!
Happy to - but I did both write and speak to Simon Fox - and my ideas were never adopted. (Actually that's not true. I wrote about four years ago with an idea - that got adopted last autumn. Only 3 years late).

Is there really a market for burned CDs? How many CD players are sold each year? Are mobile CD players still available?

Instore burning is soooo 1990s:
Bertelsmann announced a system (CD burners in shops and public spaces like airports) in August 2000. But then they bought Napster and the scheme was quickly forgotton.

And EMI (then the proud owner of HMV) was (around 98/99) an investor in musicmaker.com. And Virgin even sold some albums (Beastie Boys 2CDs The Sounds Of Science) in America as "personal CDs".

CDs still account for around 70% of all album sales (and the sales - and percentage - increases dramatically in the months before Christmas). So, the physical CD is still very important. Making range easily available will prolong the format. (But, I accept it is likely to be a "generation issue" and in 10 to 15 years’ time CDs are likely to be a niche product.

I saw the machines that were around 12 years ago, they were expensive and clunky. The current versions are much simpler, and significantly cheaper. The answer was not a consumer user machine, but a "back room" solution.

The shop could have kiosks to choose selection from, (i.e. just like browsing the internet), but also have dummy CD boxes on display, plus the ability to just ask at the counter. The difference is INSTANT SUPPLY!

I still think the thought of going into the High Street and having the ability to obtain ANY CD, DVD or GAME instantly very attractive - especially if the transaction takes place in a vibrant atmosphere interacting with interested shop staff. (Perhaps with a coffee on the side!)

Yes, the CD is still important & will be for some time. But - as the increase before christmas shows - most of the buyers buy one or two CDs a year. The don't care about a big selection, the shop staff etc.

"I still think the thought of going into the High Street and having the ability to obtain ANY CD, DVD or GAME instantly very attractive"

Almost any CD, DVD or Game (ok, I don't know about games) is alread instantly available - as downloads (from legal or illegal sources).

And it is a generational thing, see here Forget CDs. Teens Tune In to YouTube (paywall)

That's why there is no "vibrant atmosphere" in shops like HMV: There are no customers.

Yes, there were two systems in the 90s - and EMI had invested in both!
musicmaker.com: personal cds (customer chooses the songs)
Digital-on-Demand: "Normal" CDs, burned on demand.

This burn-your-own CD notion is a red herring - downloaders (legal or otherwise) don't need it at all, and those that want a physical product want an actual manufactured product, not a glorified CD-R with a photocopied sleeve, we can do that ourselves at home!! I'm very sad to say it, but last week's lowest-ever album sales is the real beginning of the end for physical music product...

Well you see my take is... you have to give a reason for people wanting to go out to a shop. So you create many; a far better quality download (equalised to your particular hearing and equipment specifications); burned for safety onto a CD/R; personal contact with others sharing your enthusiasm; private gigs; chance to be on TV; opportunity to record yourself; atmosphere - benefits you cannot get online.

But who pays attention to a Vile Pervert?

Metal Mickey wrote:
This burn-your-own CD notion is a red herring - downloaders (legal or otherwise) don't need it at all, and those that want a physical product want an actual manufactured product, not a glorified CD-R with a photocopied sleeve, we can do that ourselves at home!! I'm very sad to say it, but last week's lowest-ever album sales is the real beginning of the end for physical music product...

I actually went to Tesco and burned a CD last week. I've shown it to friends and colleagues, and not one person could tell it had been manufactured in a Tesco store and not a factory. The CD itself was printed with the same label as the facyory copies. Same colour, logos content etc. The booklet was 8 pages printed in full colour and stapled - exactly as the factory made version. The back inlay was also printed 2 sides in colour. The only thing was a different barcode. I certainly couldn't achieve this at home - especially printing the label on the disc itself.

On the point of last week's low sales. I think it was a "freak week". Yes, sales are dropping, but I doubt we'll see another less than 10k No.1 album again this year.

dixie wrote:
I actually went to Tesco and burned a CD last week. I've shown it to friends and colleagues, and not one person could tell it had been manufactured in a Tesco store and not a factory.
Fair play - I haven't seen one of these new versions yet, I just had bad memories from V1.0 some years ago. If that's the case (and I'm impressed to hear it is), then there could be some life in it, as long as the content selection is there...

JK2006 wrote:
Well you see my take is... you have to give a reason for people wanting to go out to a shop. So you create many; a far better quality download (equalised to your particular hearing and equipment specifications); burned for safety onto a CD/R; personal contact with others sharing your enthusiasm; private gigs; chance to be on TV; opportunity to record yourself; atmosphere - benefits you cannot get online.

But who pays attention to a Vile Pervert?

Obviously HMV: This is excatly the describtion of the "social media cafes" they try to install in their shops. 15 years too late, I'm afraid.

HMV to open 'social media' cafe in bid to turn around fortunes

Even the people who want a physcial product look at the price. And buy online.
a far better quality download (equalised to your particular hearing and equipment specifications) - almost nobody cares about sound quality anymore. Who has the audio equipment or the hearing ability to distinguish between good & bad sound quality? And the (compressed) masters sound terrible anyway.
personal contact - Facebook.
chance to be on TV - YouTube
opportunity to record yourself - every PC & Mac & (some) mobile devices.

Burned CDs that look exactly like "real" CDs: What's the point? This is only interesting for the dealers (less costs etc.)

After BMG merged with Sony Music the new CEO of SONY BMG Germany - MAARTEN STEINKAMP - had an incredible great idea to stamp out piracy once and for all: Real (factory produced) CDs, but without colorful labels and without booklets. This was exactly the wrong strategy. What was needed than (but wouldn't make much difference now) was a high quality product at reasonable (lower) prices.