Song remains the same at mall after sun sets on HMV
Ontario-based Sunrise Records to take over Orchard Park mall location being vacated by HMV
There’s life in the old record store yet. The HMV outlet in Kelowna’s Orchard Park mall, which will close soon after a receiver-induced sale, will reopen early next month as Sunrise Records.
Last month, Ontario-based Sunrise announced it would take over 70 of the 100 HMV locations in malls across the country under renegotiated leases with landlords.
Sunrise also plans to rehire 700 of HMV’s 1,340 employees to staff the new Sunrise stores.
Sunrise feels it can succeed where HMV, the country’s largest music retailer, failed by riding the wave of increased popularity of vinyl records.
Vinyl sales grew 29 per cent last year to 650,000 records, and increases are expected to be similar this year.
Sunrise plans to carry more than 2,000 titles of vinyl in every store, including the Kelowna location.
The store will also sell the music of local independent artists.
Sunrise will also stock 50 per cent more compact discs than HMV did.
CD sales fell 19 per cent last year to 12.3 million.
The new stores will also sell DVDs, music, film and TV apparel, and themed merchandise, toys and board games.
“We think there needs to be a great outlet across Canada to buy music,” said Sunrise president Doug Putman in an earlier interview. “A lot of the younger consumers still love having something tangible.”
Even if that’s the case, records, CDs and DVDs are very much a niche product now.
Even with vinyl’s double-digit growth, 650,000 records sold in a year pales in comparison to the 203 per cent growth in music streaming last year to an astounding 22 billion streams, driven by giants like Apple Music and Spotify.
DVDs are also almost a thing of the past thanks to TV streaming services and Netflix.
When Putman took over Sunrise in 2014, it had just five locations left in Ontario.
He’s since doubled that number, and the count will explode as the 70 former HMV locations come to life as Sunrise.
Sunrise hopes to survive by being flexible and realistic.
“Is the business the same today as it was five years ago? Of course not,” said Putman.
“And it’s going to be very different in three years. It’s up to us to adapt and change.”