HMV has relaunched its digital music store today. The last high-street record store still clinging to Britain's pavements now offers over 10 million songs at HMVdigital.com, after buying half of 7digital last year. To mark the occasion, each single in the UK top 40 costs just 40p each.
The site offers 30-second previews of tunes, which otherwise cost between 79p and 99p. Albums start at £5. Music is divided into genres, and our first impression is that each artist's list of related and similar artists does a good job.
The site includes a section devoted to music from TV, which includes music advertised on telly or used in adverts.
HMVdigital.com is an integral part of HMV's drive to outlive the struggling hard-copy music industry, which has already claimed Zavvi -- that's Virgin Megastores, for anyone who isn't a teenager -- by becoming an entertainment superbrand. HMV stores now sell music-related merchandise from band t-shirts to earphones, as well as concert tickets.
Chief HMVer Simon Fox told the Guardian that digital music and live concert sales could be tied together: "Maybe after the concert we send them a track they have just heard. When the album comes out, if they've been to the concert, maybe they get a special deal on the album."
Will you be downloading your music from His Master's Voice? Does HMV have what it takes to beat Napster, Sky Songs, eMusic and the big name, iTunes? Maybe you think downloading is already dead, now we have Spotify. Thoughts in the comments, music fans.
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AneesYounis 26 July, 2010 16:59
I think the fact that the market leader in digital music downloads, iTunes, recently acquired music streaming service Lala, suggests that they acknowedge that there will be a fundamental shift from downloads to streaming. Apple's acquisition suggests that they are working on a cloud-based iTunes with a subscription model as opposed to purchasing individual singles and albums. I feel that this will also help reduce music piracy.
Users also understand the advantages of a cloud based music streaming service as they will be able to carry their entire music library everywhere without using up a whole chunk of storage on their device of choice. Of course this will require an Internet connection but users will be able to cache songs to their device so as to make them available online, much like Spotify (which I currently use). Ultimately, I think that downloading will gradually be phased out and streaming will become the norm.
Anonymous 26 July, 2010 17:44
Music downloads are dead!
The future is streaming from the cloud!
Spotify FTW!
anonymous 26 July, 2010 21:53
I still download music, although admittedly only on artists I really like or stuff I'm using for media production. I use 7digital mostly.
"Albums start at £5" - the picture suggests albums start at £4 max, just saying :D
Anonymous 27 July, 2010 09:39
Personally I prefer music downloads since I like to actually have the file, not to mention you can't always have a decent connection everywhere you go. I reckon streaming will be something to suppliment downloads and if anything replace the radio in it's function.