The supermarket shelves hold little interest for the true music obsessive. Taking populist chart acts and serving them up as luxury purchases is fast sounding the death knell for what remains of the once thriving independent specialist music outlets.
In just seven short years the number of supermarket stores selling CDs rose from zilch, in 2003, to over three-and-a-half thousand by the decade’s end.
Supermarket Chains Undercut Online Retailers
A supermarket can even undercut an online retailer by as much as £2 a disc. The few remaining major high street megastores don’t stand a chance in hell of competing against the likes of Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s.
Another recent slump in physical music sales has driven HMV's chief executive Simon Fox to speak out at the continued growth of the UK supermarket industry.
As HMV reported a like-for-like sales slump of 15% over the past 18 weeks, Fox asked: "There are millions of feet of new supermarket space being built over the next few years. How will that affect the high street?"
HMV Losing High Street Stores
HMV has shut the door on 29 stores over the last three months, while supermarkets continue to open multiple stores in the UK’s towns and cities.
Musicians who have been around the longest have seen major changes within their industry.
Prince said recently: "The industry changed. We made money [online] before piracy was real crazy. Nobody's making money now except phone companies, Apple and Google.” He might want to add supermarkets to that list!
Tesco Reap The Profits
Tesco was not long ago singled out for looking to keep up to a third of the retail price it charges for CDs. A case of the fat cat getting fatter off the proceeds of an industry already in crisis.
The biggest threat to the supermarkets dominance in physical music sales now comes from home shopping.
The big players in this growing market are Amazon, iTunes, Play.com and HMV. It’s predominantly a male market, yet when it comes to supermarket chains three-quarters of CD sales are attributed to women.
Muscians Get The Spotify Blues
But as the industry fights for ways to stop the decline in music sales, it’s the musicians themselves who are suffering the most.
As listeners turn to streaming sites, such as Spotify, for their music fix, it’s the artists who will be left out of pocket as it will take nearly 4,000-times as many plays as that of physical purchases to get the same revenue stream.
Sources:
guardian.co.uk
Music weekly
