Daily Mail claims Google is robbing Adele, gets it very wrong

There's a great piece on MailWatch this morning looking at Alex Brummer's piece in the Mail which droned on about how Google is evil.

Google threatens to destroy not only pop sensation Adele, but Britain's film and music industries. So why is No.10 in thrall to this parasitic monster?

You might be surprised to hear that Google is threatening to destroy Adele. Sure, Twitter has issued a death threat against The Vaccines, and Bing insists it will start to remove one of The Saturdays every hour unless its demands are met by midnight, but Google threatening to destroy Adele seems to be something we've missed.

Brummer told his readers:

Nine out of the first ten websites which pop up on Google’s search engine are run by pirates who have downloaded Adele’s output and offer it online far more cheaply than official copyrighted sites and High Street retailers.

Mailwatch takes this surprising claim and grinds it into dust:

From this sample it seems that Google seems very adept at putting Adele’s fans in touch with official sources of information about her. Only the lyrics page seems unofficial or unapproved – and do lyrics really count as piracy?

There's a couple of other surprising claims in Brummer's article which are deserving of a closer look. Remember, by the way, the Brummer is not a generalist hack trying to froth up a piece; he's a former British Press Awards financial journalist of the year and a former city editor of the Mail.

The music and books retailer HMV and the music giant EMI are two of the grand old dames of Britain’s music industry. But the future of both these historic enterprises, with a pedigree of recording talent going back almost a century, is in doubt.

Together with other UK-based creative champions such as Warner Music as well as a host of imaginative, independent record producers, they are in danger of extinction — as is this country’s extraordinarily successful music business.

Where do you start? HMV has a "pedigree of recording talent", does it? Admittedly, there was an HMV label but that business has nothing to do with the shops.

More importantly, Warner Music are not "UK-based". Their headquarters is on Rockerfeller Plaza in New York.

Brummer suggests that the woes of the industry are related to Google - which is such a narrow view of what has happened since music went online as to be laughable. His subs make an explicit link in an image caption:

Grand old dame: But the future of recording giant EMI is being undermined by Google

Really? EMI still turns profits; the future has been undermined by loading the company up with unsupportable debt and a management regime ill-equipped to nurture the legacy of the company, and uninspired to cope with the future. Even if you want to take the RIAA line that unlicensed file-sharing is part of the problem, Google aren't putting the files there and work over-strenuously to take-down when their users have ignored the licensing regime.

There's a massive clunker from Brummer when he turns to HMV:

In Britain, some 70 per cent of music sales are still in the form of CDs and come through the High Street, where HMV is now the main retailer following the collapse of Woolworths and Zavvi in the early part of 2009.

Woolworths and Zavvi both collapsed at the end of 2008 although some stores were still being wound down in early 2009, but that's a minor quibble.

Oh, and HMV was already the main retailer before Woolworths and Zavvi collapsed as its sales outstripped both of them. But that's another minor quibble.

The bigger problem is the claim that 70 per cent of music sales "are still in the form of CDs and come through the High Street". Is that by volume? Is that by value? Brummer doesn't say, although the difference is important.

But if we accept his claim that most music sales are still on CD, does he really think most of those CDs are being sold through physical stores?

Does it not occur to him that a large chunk of HMV's problems are down to supermarkets selling large numbers of CDs as loss-leaders alongside the Mum's Day flowers and BOGOF baked beans?

And has he never heard of Amazon, which is selling quite a large proportion of those CDs, without the need for anyone to go near the High Street?

Although I suppose you can find Amazon by using Google. Clearly that's Google's fault, too.

Google aren't targeting Adele. It does sound rather like Brummer is using dodgy arguments in some sort of attack on Google, though.

Brighton already treating Borders like a dead man walking

Panic in the centre of Brighton as they watch Borders struggle for life:

A prime shopping site could lay empty for months following the collapse of bookshop Borders.

This despite the chain (currently) still being a going concern. But the worry - which seems to come solely from the Evening Argus looking to fill a square on its pages - hasn't been helped by Churchill Square's failure to fill the slot left by Zavvi. Ah, if the Virgin Megastore had remained in its gorgeous building along Western Road, the hole might have been less apparent.

Gennaro Castaldo Watch: HMV shuts Southend store

It always seemed unlikely that HMV would keep two stores running in those places where it had taken over nearby Zavvis, and so it is proving: the Southend HMV is closing as the HMV-which-was-Zavvi takes over.

Not just any old record store, this, though: it was the record shop in Morrissey's Every Day Is Like Sunday video. It wasn't an HMV back then, though:

Morrissey - Everyday Is Like Sunday
Uploaded by jesus_lizard

At this going down of the POS material, who shall speak for the store? Why, how about HMV's very own talking-talker Gennaro Castaldo?

HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said: “HMV has recently taken on a much larger and better positioned site in the High Street, which has enabled us to extend our music, film and games offers in Southend.

“While we are in consultation with work colleagues based at the old Queens Road site, where the lease has now ended, we’re confident we will be able to find alternative positions for anyone wishing to remain with the organisation – both in the new Southend store and in other HMV stores within Essex.”

Not outside the county, though. Buggered if they're going to let the Southend staff turn up in Suffolk.

Very nostalgic feelings for the Zavvi

Popjustice visit the old Zavvi store on Tottenham Court Road to see what's going on there. It's now a temporary clothes shop - a shop that won't be around for long, rather than a shop which sells clothes that fall apart quite quickly. Because that would be Peacocks.

Oh, yes... and you take space in the store. Which leads Popjustice to hatch a cunning plan...

[Thanks to Matt W for the link]

Zavvi dreams of a new, online life

Flicking through New Media Age earlier, I was surprised to see bullish remarks from the Hut Group - who have bought the Zavvi brand to use online.

Yes, the Zavvi brand. The brand that was so underdeveloped, even when the company was going out of business every news report had to nudge the reader or viewer with "yes you do... the old Virgin Megastores..."

So Hut intend to try and build a consumer business on the back of a brand that, if people recognise at all, will recall as a basket case which, erm, stopped taking any online orders at all in the run-up to Christmas as its stores turned into something like a rummage sale in a day hospital. That's going to be tricky. Let's hope they're not setting their sights too high, eh?

[Dominic Starkey, head of ecommerce at The Hut Group said] "we're looking beyond HMV and Play,com as competitiors, more to Amazon.co.uk. That's where we want to take the Zavvi brand"

Mr. Starkey had to end the interview there, as he had to supervise an ant which he had employed to relocate a rubber tree plant.

Gennaro Castaldo Watch: Live from Croydon

After a refit - basically burning the Zavvi sign and slapping a picture of a dog up in its place - the old Virgin Megastore in Croydon reopens as an HMV. Gennaro Castaldo, director of the thoughts department at HMV, is delighted:

Gennaro Castaldo, chief press officer at HMV, said that although the stores were within a short distance of each other he was confident they could both thrive and develop their own identities.

Mr Castaldo added: "Croydon is such a large shopping area with a large flow of people coming in."

Although when the store was a Zavvi, both shops really did have different identities, and that didn't work out well, did it?

Flickr flickr flickr flickr flickr flickr, here you are: Zavvi

Hmm. Not entirely sure this exciting new section name is going to work, so this might be a one-off: The sign left by Zavvi staff as they closed the Sheffield branch.

Gennaro Castaldo Watch: U2 have released a record

Excitement from Gennaro Castaldo, as HMV plans to keep stores open past midnight on the first sale day of U2's album.

Presumably that's to stop customers going elsewhere to... other... record shops. Or maybe they're going to sell it at midnight so that the elderly U2 audience can buy their records in peace as the new HMV customer base will be tucked up in bed.

Gennaro, though, sees this as some sort of historic moment:

HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said: "We have had an incredible amount of interest in the new album with a considerable number of pre-orders secured recently."

Fans will be able to pick up the first copies of the recording in HMV shops in Dublin's Grafton Street and Galway as soon as they open at midnight tomorrow (Thursday), he said.

"We advise fans to come down early to be in with a chance to receive a U2 goody bag," he added.

So... getting the album early isn't really enough of a draw, you still have to bribe people with a free gift to actually persuade them to turn up, then?

Meanwhile, Gennaro has been casting an eye over his new, expanded kingdom as Zavvi sells up:

Gennaro Castaldo, chief press officer at HMV, said he was confident two HMV stores in the same stretch of road would "complement" each other well.

And he assured us there are no plans to close the original HMV.


He said: "The Croydon HMV is one of our largest but we still feel there is enough demand for a second store of roughly the same proportions.

"We will not be closing the current HMV store. Even though both stores will carry the same branding and the same name, they will have their own character."

He added: "We are very excited about our new acquisition.

"Croydon is a good site for us. It is a major centre with sufficient demand to open a second store."

How does that work, then? You've got a brand, and yet you can have two stores with the same brand but different characters?

The long, slow death of Zavvi finally ends

If you didn't know better, you might assume that Ernst & Young deliberately chose Brits day to tug the plug on what remains of Zavvi.

There will be a few stores with a short-term future: a further five stores have been picked up by HMV, who will rebrand them and carry on, while former Zavvi Chief Executive Simon Douglas has decided to have another go: he's formed a company called Head Entertainment and picked up five Zavvi stores. That must have been a weird experience:

- so, is this a good business to buy into?
- oh, yes. it was only mismanagement... that... sorry, difficult trading conditions that led to them to going down.

The other stores, though, will be shuttered and the Zavvi name will disappear from the high streets. It's probably not even going to make a Trivial Pursuit question.

Zavvi: fit for the future?

Business took me back to the neighbourhood of Zavvi yesterday, and I popped in. Fans of the chain will doubtless be delighted to hear this time they actually had proper bags for carrying purchases away in.

More worrying is that - considering the Milton Keynes branch is supposed to be one not about to close - the store looked, well, awfully like a shop that was about to close. Everything seemed to be deeply discounted. Indeed, so discounted that the price cuts had outpaced the ability of the store to print signs, so most of the "25%" and "50%" signs had been drawn on cardboard in marker pen.

But with everything on sale - at silly prices - were I employed in the store, I might be wondering what, exactly, the store is intended to be selling in two months' time. Reducing large levels of less-than-attractive stock you can see - but flogging off everything dirt cheap? That looks like an exit strategy.

Zavvi dumps online plans

Amongst all the news items detailing the break-up of Zavvi, this is the one that confirms the store is on its way to the knackers' yard: Ernst And Young have dumped the company's plans to launch a download store. Nothing says "managed decline" more than that.

HMV expands at Zavvi's expense

Gennaro Castaldo is going to have to be spread ever thinner: HMV have bought fourteen branches of Zavvi to rebrand with the dog and the gramophone and the youth-clubby feel:

The Zavvi stores it is buying are all profitable, HMV said, and are primarily in locations where it does not currently have a store.

It's spending two million, including refits, which suggests it's getting a better bargain than most people who've turned up at Zavvi stores looking for sales.

Meanwhile, the company is trying its hand at live music, paying for naming rights over the Hammersmith Apollo - soon to be the HMV Apollo - and laying plans:

Chief executive Simon Fox said the deal was "far more" than a rebranding exercise of some of the venues.

"Music is very much part of our DNA, and by extending the HMV brand into the growing live music and entertainment market, our customers will be able as never before to access and experience music in all of its forms via HMV," he said.

Among the initiatives will be HMV loyalty card holders being able to "earn" tickets to gigs as rewards.

So it's much more than rebranding. It's rebranding and flogging cheap tickets.

The MAMA Group said the deal "alters the face of the live venue business in the UK".

"The engagement of artist and fan is the key driver of the music industry and that engagement is at its most evident at live events," the firm added.

It said the venture with HMV would link tickets, music and merchandise. "A direct artist-to-fan relationship is a way to help the music industry grow and prosper," it said.

Perhaps that's true, although isn't the weak link that neither MAMA nor HMV actually represent any artists (unless you count Castaldo, of course)?

Hey... maybe HMV might think about releasing records, too. If it can get its brand back from EMI.

Zavvi runs away from the Circus

Yesterday, the flagship Virgin Megastore was axed in the US; today, as part of the latest slew of closures announced by Ernst & Young as they battle to keep Zavvi afloat, their flagship, in Piccadilly Circus, is going.

By the end of the latest round of closures, 40 stores will have gone, ranging from Piccadilly to the Cheshire Oaks outlet village; nearly two-thirds of the chain remains trading though, and E&Y are upbeat about the possibility of finding a buyer.

Breaking news; Zavvi shrinks

BBC News is reporting that Zavvi are going to close 22 of their stores. Not clear how many that would leave.

Zavvi gift cards: the gift that just stops giving

There's some rumours circulating about strange goings-on with Zavvi gift vouchers; even talk of a mysterious secret account into which gift voucher sales were diverted.

As with most rumours, there's a slight element of truth: there was a protected account, but it wasn't secret:

As soon as the Directors became aware of the problems with EUK (27th November 2008), zavvi's main supplier, they sought to protect customer interests by lodging funds into a trust account. Until this time the Directors had no reason to believe there would be any issue regarding the sale of Gift Cards / Gift Vouchers from their stores. The sale of Gift Cards / Gift Vouchers was terminated on 4th December 2008. It is hoped that customers who purchased zavvi Gift Cards / Gift Vouchers from 27th November 2008 will receive a refund in respect of these Gift Cards / Gift Vouchers.

So, from the 27th of November, the money that people spent in good faith on Zavvi gift vouchers was being protected. The wider question, though, might be why - if the adminstrators were nervous enough to think there might be a problem on the 27th, it wasn't until the 4th of December that they actually stopped selling the vouchers at all? How is it "protecting customer interests" by selling a product they had good reason to suspect might be worthless?

Still, if you bought the vouchers in this period, at least you'll get your money back. Older Zavvi voucher holders will just have to join the queue with all the other unsecured creditors.

[Thanks to Michael M]

Zavvi endings?

Obviously, the timing of the collapse of Zavvi has been sped up by the failure of Woolworths' distribution, but it seems that all that has done is sped the inevitable, rather than brought destruction where there was only light. Even Zavvi's management team seem to tacitly accept that:

The group's founding partners Simon Douglas and Steve Peckham said: "We have done all that is possible to keep the business trading, but the problems encountered with EUK, and particularly its recent failure, have been too much for the business to cope with."

- that there was much else to cope with besides is certainly implied.

It's sad - who wouldn't rather buy music in a shop that at least once used to understand it rather than at Tesco? - and, for the staff, you'd have to hope they can salvage something in the New Year. But nobody who's shopped in a Zavvi since the ugly frontage first appeared on the High Street is going to be that surprised by this one.

Zavvi in one hell of a mess

Zavvi isn't having a good time of it right now - the unlovely chain was reliant on Woolworths for most of its deliveries and has already had to close its online store right at the busiest time of the year. Oh, and while bunches of prebooked and preprinted adverts were sending customers to the place.

It's getting worse: the company have had to bring Ernst And Young to help them pick their way through the minefield of their current trading. Zavvi owes £106 million to Woolworths' Entertainment UK subsidiary, and could be forced to hand over the money (which it doesn't have) or give back the stock in its stores:

Suppliers could claim they have "retention of title" over millions of pounds of stock, potentially allowing them to reclaim the goods from Zavvi stores.

People working with Zavvi are concerned that the company may be forced to choose between returning some stock at its most crucial time of year or continuing to sell it in defiance of the music labels.

Oh, come on, Zavvi - surely you don't think entertainment industry companies would be as short-sighted as to demand return of unsold stock right before Christmas, thereby making inevitable the collapse of one of the only two major record chains left trading? It's not like the BPI companies are bungling and can't separate short-term cash from long-term best interest, is it? It's not like they have a track record of that.

At the moment, the whole thing is balancing on a line of credit underwritten by Richard Branson - a man who must have thought he'd never have to worry about those bloody stores when he offloaded the Virgin Megastore chain back in September 2007.

The Zavvi.co.uk website is like a bizarre Mary Celeste webspace right now - you can go through, look at items: there's just no way you can buy them. "Pick up instore" is the best the website can offer, allowing all the convenience of a high street store with none of the convenience of not having to go into a poorly-lit digital rummage souk. That link, by the way, takes you to the Rubiks Cube page:

It's the no.1 Christmas present this year and the best selling puzzle in history! It has 43 quintillion combinations, but it can be solved in under 30 seconds.

The number one Christmas gift this year? Really? Perhaps in households that are relying on Zavvi for their income.

I don't want to blame the Rubiks Cube page for bringing down the whole company, but is "hey, this is a puzzle which you can solve in less than a minute" really a great selling point for any product? "Hours of fiendish fun", maybe; "seconds to learn, a lifetime to master" - that could be good. But "buy your kids something that has an even shorter lifespan than our company" doesn't sound like a sweet spot for your consumer goods.

Last weekend I happened into a Zavvi for the first time since they grew ashamed of their roots and started to hide the records behind the service elevator, to buy a DVD box set as a gift. "Would you like a bag?" asked the assistant. Normally, I'd decline but I had other shopping to do, and it was a gift needing concealing, so I said "yes, please."

The assistant disappeared under the counter and re-emerged holding the sort of brown paper bags greengrocers would use for mushrooms, shoved the box into the bag and handed it over.

So I'm left holding a package which is same size, shape and weight as it was before, and still equally as difficult to carry as it had been before the bag became involved. Only now: it looked like pornography.

Zavvi closes website

Zavvi - the stupid new name for what used to be Virgin Megastores - has shuttered its website following stock problems.

The chain relied on Woolworths for its supply of music and movies, and with Woolworths buckling, the decision has been taken to concentrate what CDs and DVDs it has into its stores. Presumably the decision was based on the criteria 'where are people going to be able to hit us if they're upset'?

Lost Virginity

The now-no-longer-part-of-Virgin Virgin Megastores have snuck out a glimpse at their new, Zavvi branding. The corporate look is living up to the new name, then.

[via DJ Martian]