HMV goes into administration for second time

HMV has gone into administration for the second time, placing the UK music and movie retailer's 125 stores and 2,200 jobs at risk. 

Poor Christmas sales have been blamed for the situation according to The Guardian, with administrators KPMG called in following the disappointing festive shopping period. 

The last time the giant needed a buy-out was in 2013, when a cash injection came from Hilco. Whether a new savior will now be found is unclear. While music sales grew by $1.4billion in 2017 alone, the sales of physical products such as CDs are in decline and account for a large proportion of the chain's revenue. 

“During the key Christmas trading period, the market for DVDs fell by over 30% compared to the previous year, and while HMV performed considerably better than that, such a deterioration in a key sector of the market is unsustainable," said Paul McGowan, Hilco's executive chairman. 

Perhaps surprisingly, in 2016 HMV was trumpeted as the UK's biggest vinyl retailer, shifting more units than any other company in the resurgent 12" market— currently so strong that a new pressing plant is set to open in Liverpool. Clearly this hasn't been enough to balance out the decline in physical media sales overall, with Brexit also contributing to the problems as recent UK high street figures show an overall slowdown in consumer spending.