Hilco-owned company is back to number one in the music charts after British artists spark revival in physical music sales
HMV has reclaimed its position as Britain’s biggest music retailer after a surge in physical music sales.
HMV has overtaken Amazon for the first time since September 2013, when the music retailer was closing stores across the country as a result of its collapse into administration.
The retailer’s rise up the music charts highlights the recovery of HMV under Hilco, which bought the chain out of administration.
The figures for the first quarter of 2015 from Kantar Worldpanel show that sales of physical music rose 12pc year-on-year thanks to the popularity of British artists such as Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran.
Fiona Keenan, analyst at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “HMV has been successful in attracting shoppers in store that want to browse its extensive range of products before deciding what to buy, which historically was a real area of strength for the high street specialist.
“Spend from consumers browsing for music products in HMV has grown by almost 50pc compared to this time last year, helping to boost the retailer’s share of total browsed spend in the market to 43.4pc, making it the standout player.
“Pre-administration, HMV’s share of browsing purchases was regularly over 50pc, so this recent resurgence is a positive sign for the retailer’s future as it faces increased competition from the online market.”
However, HMV continues to lag behind Amazon in the overall entertainment market. Disappointing video game sales in the first quarter dragged down the overall market, including the supermarkets, but Amazon grew its market share from 18.8pc a year ago to 23.1pc. HMV is in second place with a market share of 16.6pc, while Tesco is in third place with 14.7pc, down from 15.1pc last year.
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