His (Mortal) Voice: what the two-time death of HMV tells us about the modern high street
I’m hardly the first person to throw the BBC in the bin. I respect their journalism and reject (most of) the hearsay that calls them thralls to the government position. Sure, they occasionally present news in an overtly straightforward way, without considering the systemic cause of the problem (see: late capitalism) but they’re not alone in that. To attack the BBC in principle is to attack an institution that most Britons instinctively respect and value – and thanks to hits like Top Gear and Doctor Who, consumers all over the world lean the same way. Yet, I can’t help but feel that the BBC’s tact on the recent fall into administration of His Master’s Voice , or HMV to his friends, is a tad off the mark. Immediately, as is so tempting nowadays, they err on the side of blaming digital streaming services: much like Netflix foresaw the collapse of Blockbuster, so Spotify, Amazon and Google have brought the downfall of outlets like HMV. Why buy a CD, DVD or any other physical media when y