High street music chain Zavvi is to stop stocking singles, reports EUK.
In a move bound to upset both luddites and the low of attention span, the retail bigwigs are set to stop buying singles, including all 7" and 12"-only releases, from March 31.
They may, however, deign to consider big releases where physical sales forecasts are high - that'd be your X-Factor winners, charity fluff etc.
Zavvi
can get out.
There's a witty nonchalence to this news headline
good. good.
x
:)
i enjoyed the play on words also.
so how may shops that stock singles are left kids?
hmv have muttered about this for ages
doubtless they will follow
which leaves yr indies
about 50 then?
nationally?
grrrrreat.................
Whatever, indeed...
My employer has NO IDEA.
When was the last time...
you bought a single from a shop? It used to be all the rage when I was a lad, etc.
about 4/5 days ago
i buy lots of 7" singles
Today, actually
I spend about £10 a week on new 7" singles, (thats before I hit the second hand shops). Yes, seriously- if not more!! There's a lot of good stuff that comes out.
I seem to remember they were rubbish at stocking singles anyway, HMV has always been better. So, not many sleepless nights.
I don't know if the 'luddites and those of low attention span' comment is supposed to be sarcastic. If it isn't I'm annoyed. Format preferences can't make you any less a music lover. I'd argue that a lot of bands work best on a good 7" single.
well
i spent £10 on 7 and 12 inch singles this week - and i don't even have anything to play them on
never get my singles from zavvi anyway, hmv usually undercut them by a penny at least and i really am stingy enough to care
opposite
here, zavvi are usually cheaper. Really ignorant, ludicrous decision. They've just lost all the DJ trade in a snap, but seeing as even HMV recently got rid of the 12" dance/etc shelf they had, they all seem to no longer care.
sadly its probably not worth them having them in terms of profits
sucks though
The shop I work in
keeps all the (new) singles in the stockroom, if anyone asks for them I tend to say 'ahh well, we have some singles, but you can't really look at them, is there anything specific you want...' I only by 7" singles from Rough Trade. Cuz I am Kool.
Zavvi arn't cheaper
HMV online is so much cheaper than zavvi - online or instore. Only once or twice has zavvi been cheaper. And if you have a hmv student card you can use it online, including on sales, meaning I got 'wincing the night away' for £3.40. beat that Crappi
profits this, profits that
business is a mugs game.
yesterday also for me
I <3 singles
Frankly, I'm glad.
Beyond the damage it's going to do to DJs prowling for 12"s, the 'Single' as a format has well and truly kicked the bucket for several reasons - the biggest being that digital download is more efficient these days, has as much if not more impact on the charts now, and is generally not as big a ripoff as hopping into HMV, forking out up to 4 quid for a release day CD single with, if you're luckly, ONE B-side (that will be called an 'exclusive track' for marketing purposes).
I used to buy singles every week, back in the heady days of the mid 90s till about 2001, where things started going downhill. I've been foolish enough to buy five singles this year, and only one of them came up to standard - Hot Chip's Ready for the Floor. Everything else, including Radiohead, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, R.E.M and Elbow, have been overpriced cardboard cutout wastes of time.
Just download them. Buy the albums, by all means - I download stuff constantly but there's nothing to compare actually having a CD or record in your grasp, just don't pander to the charts or the stores with singles - the bands get nothing anyway.
I think you're missing
the point.
Maybe you don't buy singles, but clearly, many people do. Having the option to continue to do so would be nice especially in towns or cities where other than Zavvi or HMV there is little other option when it comes to record buying..
If HMV follow suit this is a shame
they are generally the cheapest outlets for new release vinyl in central london. Is the picadilly circus one still Virgin rather than Zavvi? They still have styluses on their decks so you can listen to stuff.
This is a great shame
as an earlier poster rightly pointed out, so much good music comes out (or has come out in the past) as singles, but the desire doesn't seem to be there from a customer perspective to keep them. There are a good few people out there, myself included, who clearly have a low attention span and love singles. As our numbers seem to be on an ever decreasing spiral (people are obviously developing longer attention spans and buying albums - oh if that was only the case!), record stores are finding it a lot of effort to stock singles. I work in one of the aforementioned big chains, and a couple of weeks ago we took £2 on 7" singles. This is despite having about 10 decent new releases in stock at least. So we now have a box full of 7" that we've had to order, process, put out on display and will now have to de-sticker, box up, apply for a return, pay high courier costs to obtain the return and get out of the building. You can see the problem. I don't want to stop selling singles, but it appears we just don't want them anymore.
Zavvi are not savy
this is a very foolish decision.