HMV: Vinyl sales up 170%, CDs 1.5%

Hilco Capital, the company that bought HMV out of administration, has released its 2014 sales figures, which see the entertainment retailer reclaim the No.1 spot for physical music sales. Like-for-like sales of CDs rose by 1.5% in 2014, while vinyl sales, which passed the million mark in the UK for the first time since 1996 last year, were up 170%.

HMV even overtook online retail behemoth Amazon during the Christmas period, bucking the poor Christmas sales trend on the high street after Black Friday’s earlier trading peak. The retailer currently operates with only two-thirds of the shop space it had before collapsing.

DVD and Blu-ray sales were also up 1.5%, despite a decline in the overall market. The Telegraph reports that increases meant that, in the two weeks before Christmas, HMV accounted for a third of sales of CDs or DVDs in the country. Total sales for HMV in 2013 reached £365.7m – just over a tidy million per day.

Paul McGowan, chief executive of Hilco, said: “HMV has captured more and more market share in a year when major new movie releases have been scarce and there have been only a few major album successes.

“With a bumper year of new releases already planned for 2015 we expect to have overall growth in like-for-like DVD and Blu-ray sales as well as continued growth in the physical music sector with vinyl also expected to continue its revival.”

Source: Music Week