Zavvi in administration

[AtW]

I think a lot of people are put off by not 'owning' the music

It will be possible to copy it to your PVR and keep it, burn DVD - as long as it's available 24/7 it will work - they just need to have ONE company that combines all music/video from all player to avoid splitting the market - they should do revenue split internally according to usage, so popular stuff gets more money or whatever.

I'd be glad to pay £15-20 per month for that, Blockbuster will die of course but who gives a smeg?

[Beefy198]

But who shops in there? As Lilelvis said, it's so overpriced.

I don't know, it's always been busy whenever I've been in there.

[minestrone]

I know that on line sales have taken away from many shops but in Glasgow, which is the second biggest retail center in the UK, it has been the out of town shopping malls that have killed the town off.

I know it is easy to drive into a car park and have 50 shops in one building but the city has turned into a poundland wilderness.

[Gonzo]

It seems obvious that traditional high street chains that sell stuff that can be bought more cheaply on the web are doomed.
The only surprise is how they've survived so long.

Don't forget though that although using the internet is an obvious choice for people like us who have no issues with technology (and are probably very targetted when they do shop), my parents have only ever bought the occasional thing online (when it has been from another country) because they are suspicious of the technology, and Mrs Gonzo likes to go to shops and "browse" in case she comes accross something that she didn't know she needed

So there is still a place for the old fashioned shops at the moment - what I don't know is how the teenagers shop which will be the biggest clue to what will happen in the future.

[Cowboy Bob]

Napster have already done that, but I think a lot of people are put off by not 'owning' the music

My stuff is up on iTunes and Amazon MP3. I don't bother getting physical copies printed up other than for family and friends. It's not worth it. Don't need no stinking record label either.

I don't sell enough to make it a plan B, but I sell enough to cover my costs - I'd never do that with CDs or if I owed thousands to a record label for studio fees, marketing and all the other crap that comes with dealing with those leeches.

[minestrone]

Download quality is much poorer than something you can buy.

But then most people are only interested in buying an X Factor song to play in their phone. Not play a vinyl copy of a Mozart opera on a 10,000 quid Linn system.

[AtW]

Not play a vinyl copy of a Mozart opera on a 10,000 quid Linn system.

This market segment won't sustain retail shops that focus on mass market.

[minestrone]

This market segment won't sustain retail shops that focus on mass market.

I think the vinyl comment was an admission to that. Keep up at the back there.

[AtW]

I think the vinyl comment was an admission to that. Keep up at the back there.

I felt it was more relevant to quote the bit where you mentioned your 10 grand sound system

[TykeMerc]

I know that on line sales have taken away from many shops but in Glasgow, which is the second biggest retail center in the UK, it has been the out of town shopping malls that have killed the town off.

I know it is easy to drive into a car park and have 50 shops in one building but the city has turned into a poundland wilderness.

That's the syndrome that's killed off many town centers.

Of course it hasn't been helped by dogmatic town and city Councils who detest cars and have made accessing and parking in their centres incredibly difficult and expensive. As a result of the difficulties compared with out of town shops people simply don't bother going into town if they are likely to have any amount of shopping to carry.

To take Halifax as an example there used to be abundant free 1.5 hour on street parking in easy reach of the reasonably diverse thriving shops, now the parking is ticketed, £0.80 for a max of 1 hour and the number of spaces has been cut by about 80% the town is dead and full of charity shops. It doesn't help that the Councillor who heads the transport unit is a non driver and rabidly anti car.

Music shops have no real future since CD sales have plummeted accross the board as a result of bent and legit downloads.