Two Lower Mainland HMV stores closing
Posted November 3, 2011 8:02 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – HMV is closing its flagship store at Robson and Burrard and you can blame Vancouver’s high rent and people’s changing habits when it comes to buying music. It’s also closing a smaller store in Richmond on January 1st.
SFU Communications Professor Peter Chow-White says CD’s just aren’t selling like they once did.
“Most of the moves through peer-to-peer sharing networks. The other way people look and listen to music now is not so much audio but they go to YouTube as well.”
With 30 per cent of Canadians now buying their tunes on-line, Chow-White feels closures like this are inevitable.
“The brick-and-mortar stores have become less of an avenue for buying music.”
HMV isn’t completely gone, however. The company will be expanding even more into the digital world, offering more than 10 million MP3 tracks for download as well as a customer rewards program.
HMV also plans to open a smaller store downtown.
