new thread
Hi fellow longhairs.
Remember an earlier post about the U.K. entertainment store HMV telling its long haired male employees to cur their hair?
Well HMV is in financial trouble, which could explain it, even though it's unjustified.
"The chief executive of HMV has insisted that the failed entertainment chain has a future on the UK high street, as it emerged that the retailer’s outstanding vouchers and gift cards are now worthless.
The 92-year-old retail group collapsed by appointing Deloitte as administrator today, leaving the future of 4,123 staff hanging by a thread. But Trevor Moore, the chief executive of HMV, said: “We remain convinced we can find a successful business outcome. We want to make sure it remains on the high street,” adding: “We know our customers feel the same way.”
......
Read more in the link below.
It's clear that HMV has succumbed to the shift from CD's & DVDs to digital media consumption over the Internet.
A later report says that Blockbuster is also in financial trouble.
Hi Charles,
I remember reading about that hair policy issue as their attempt to improve business. Yea like short haired employees will drag in the customers by the masses!LOL.The management needs to look in the mirror as they haven't adapted to the changing times.Oh well better luck next time.As for Blockbuster I've seen locations shut down all over by me.Guess they never adapter either.Cheers
Mârk
Hi Mark,
True but how do they adapt when content is free online?
Like I don't buy videos anymore but download full movies in MP4 format from You Tube and watch them directly on my media player.
They could offer such a service for a fee but someone who buys one can post it on a site from which it can be downlaoded free-of-charge and that pulls the rug from under their feet.
Businesses have been trying to find solutions to these issues for years but have not managed to come up with a very viable solution.
As for HMV, I think their anti long hair policy is due to pressure from whatever consultants who are advising or managing them now and these guys are most probably management types with a Masters of Nothing Better (MBA) degree but no brains.
It' true that they are stuck between a rock and a hard place but those free downloads sounds a little illegal to me if you were to purchase a video and put it online for free viewing.Can't remember but isn't that the problem Napster ran into years ago?Regardless these type of companies need to adjust the way they do business or may have to expand into other aspects of it.Maybe their businesses are just plain obsolete.It's sort of happening to consumer electronic stores such as Circuit City and Best Buy.Online purchases either are or have killed their business.Anyway don't take it out on your longhaired employees;)Cheers
Mârk
Hi Mark,
Anyway don't take it out on your longhaired employees;)Cheers"
Agreed, they should not take it out on their long haired employees but it may not be HMV's decision but that of Deloitte.
"The 92-year-old retail group collapsed by appointing Deloitte as administrator today, leaving the future of 4,123 staff hanging by a thread."
Secondly is this paragraph further down the report:-
"Neil Saunders, the managing director of Conlumino, the retail consultancy, said: “By our own figures, we forecast that by the end of 2015 some 90.4 per cent of music and film sales will be online. The bottom line is that there is no real future for physical retail in the music sector.”
Last week, I came across a Tower Records store in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and I asked the sales staff how business was doing and he told me that their sales are down 50% due to competition from downloads.
Stores which sell genuine CDs & DVDs, and even some vinyl LPs such as Tower Records are few and far between in Malaysia, where piracy has been rather rampant for many years now.
Pirated copies of CDs and DVDs have been widely available here for over 20 years now despite occasional crackdowns by the authorities.
The pirates have salesmen who sell their pirateware table to table in coffee shops and on the street and there even are stores selling pirateware.
One of the problems is corruption. The pirates pay off the enforcement authorities to turn a blind eye and leave them alone, so while there are laws against piracy, with heavy penalties even for possession and occasional raids by the authorities, it's more of a show to say that the government is doing something to stem it.
Way back in the 1960s, my cousin in Singapore managed to buy a pirated vinyl LP but today, Singapore has managed to more successfully stem the incidence of music, video and software piracy in their island-republic.
I don't like piracy as such, since however it's supporters try to justify it, it denies musicians whatever royalties are due to them, however small, and while some may argue that it's a "victory of the people" over the corporate record companies, still it can also deny independent musicians and artists of their fair due.
However, I won't deny that I'm guilty of having bought pirated DVDs from vendors who come by, especially when it's a level of personalised service which the genuine DVD stores don't provide and especially since they are few and far between as well.
Anyway, perhaps like for vinyl LPs, the days of CDs and DVDs are coming to an end and the number of those pirateware vendors coming by tables are very much reduced now. In fact, I cannot recall when was the last one came by.
Perhaps such businesses may have to either close or switch to something else - pirated Big Macs perhaps. :)
The publishing industry also faces similar challenges from the shift of readership online and digital. Last night, I completed my article on that issue. Check it out.
BTW. The tag line in Johnnie Walker scotch whisky ads goes "It never varies." Well certain things would be in dire trouble if they changed. Remember how consumers protested when Coca Cola changed the taste of its drink in the 1980s, forcing them to come out with Coke Classic.
All of this is kind of off-topic on this site. I hope I don't get booted off.
Cheers
Charles
Is the ''future of media'' undermining the future of media?
It also could trigger a copyright battle. Around here in this
part of the usa some have posted copyrighted material and have
been nailed to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
You tube has lots of material that is copyrighted, that the
copy right bots haven't caught up with yet.
Hi Long Hair in Albany.
I realise I'm being a bad guy by downloading those videos of full-length movies but I would not be able to get hold of them anyway in the few genuine CD & DVD stores which remain in Malaysia, nor even from the pirated CD & DVD vendors who mostly sell pirated copies of the latest movies in the theatres.
Many of those videos I download are 40 or 50 years old and some are classics which are perhaps now in the public domain.
Anyway, these are the challenges posed to the creative content industry posed by the shifting sands wrought by advances in digital technology.
I local rock musician told me how horrified he was at how sites like Pirate Bay can literally pull the rug from under the feet of musicians who need to earn a living from their work.
He and his father, both long haired, play the pub circuit as a duo, and sometimes in a larger band.
I don't think Google cares, since they don't produce the content but benefit from the eyeballs it attarcts and the ad revenue it earns them.
I recent report shows that Google's worldwide advertising revenue outstripped that of all U.S. print media combined in 2012.
In the past, people were concerned about the overwhelming share Microsoft has of desktop PC operating systems but today, Google seems to have become the "Microsoft of cyberspace" and has the potential to shape our access to knowledge and information, if it were to so choose, and that kind of power is even more scary, IMHO.
Anyway, I run Linux, so to me, "Windows" is something you open to let in fresh air.
Also see my reply to Mark.
Cheers
Charles
It sounds like the ill conceived hair length policy was just one symptom of the management that sent the company to where it is now. Media-related businesses that try to run things the same way they they were done decades ago are dying in droves. In business, you have to change or die these days.
They sound like they're stuck in the 1950!
this is an era to embrace diversity in the workplace and that includes LONG HAIRED men!
Yup! I can't agree more.
Charles
Schadenfreude is a handy German word for this, i.e. being pleased about someone else's misfortune, but I am.
Anyone who discriminates against a minority in this day and age SHOULD go bust, especially if the minority is us, LOL!
I would point that for all practical purposes Blockbuster is dead.
There used be a whole bunch of Blockbuster stores around here.
(4 of them.)
There are zero left. Also the thing that killed Blockbuster
is you'd get late fees, which meant it was cheaper to
go to Wal-mart four blocks away and buy the darn movie.
Not to mention they were also out of that movie you came into
Blockbuster to get.
Finaly HMV will be history for one basic reason. When I buy music I pick up my iphone and buy it from the Apple store.
The only way HMV can survive is follow Apples lead. And between
Apple, Google, Amazon, and others their time is running out
very fast. With Apple I buy the music, it's delivered in a matter
of seconds, I never set foot in a store, never see a maie employee, and never see how long his hair is.
That is why HMV is failing, Apple and others are eating HMVs lunch.
Selling music today is a cut throat business, and HMV is
finished, done, caput. Stick fork in them, they're done.
Hi LH in Albany.
True. Apple, Google & Amazon are newcomers who have upset the proverbial apple cart for the likes of Blockbuster, and as large, powerful corporations, they have the financial power, muscle and can afford the technological genius to pull the rug from under the feat of Blockbuster, HMV, etc.
However, this brings to mind the claim by Internet idealists that it provides a level playing field in which all, big or small have a fair chance.
Perhaps that may have been so in the early days of the World Wide Web but today, these giant corporations, which were once cute & cuddly startups, have come to dominate. So much for "power to the people" on the Web.
Hello everyone,
Many tabloids like the Sun jumped on their high horses by saying that HMV was banning long hair on men. HMV is simply implementing a dress code, and both sexes have to tie their hair back, it seems. Long hair on men is not banned but guys are told to tie their hair back.
Just a clarification.
Personally, I prefer, the "traditional" record store, where employees wear their hair loose if they want. It was the pleasure of visiting a record store, and seeing more long hairs than in other places downtown. It was fun to look through the albums, look at the album art, making a decision on where to "invest" one's allowance.
Georges.
This BBC story contradicts the long hair ban at HMV.
Hi Georges,
Thanks for the clarrification and I stand corrected on HMV.
While I myself tie my hair in a pony tail due to work (and I am lazy to untie it afterwards), however I agree that it looks alot better free.
While a student in the U.K. in the 1970s, most long haired men did not tie their hair in a pony tail but wore it down.
I enjoyed my visits to Virgin records on Newton Street, Manchester, which had a rather alternative atmosphere at the time, with the smell of burning incense sticks or cones and male staff with long hair which they wore down.
While I never visited it, I undersatnd the first one in London was pretty cool with cushions on the floor.
I very rarely visited the HMV store round the corner from it but that was not because I had anything against HMV but liked Virgin better.
However, Virgin records today has a rather corporate atmosphere, which is a shame, though some of their male staff have long hair.
Things change over time I guess, especially as small companies become big.
Cheers
Charles
I prefer wearing my hair down (not tied up in a pony tail) but
often have to tie it a pony tail or braid to keep the hair
from getting damaged. I can wear it either way at work, but
we have a lot of windy days here and many stormy days so I have to
tie the hair down to prevent damage/tangles.
Hi LHIA,
DO you get many tangles at your length that are very difficult to get out? I am wondering because your hair type looks similar to mine. I plan on wearing my hair down most of the time. Thanks for your input.
Ted
Actually in the last year i've only gotten tangles twice. When it is windy/storming/or my hair will get caught in something
i'm religious about doing what is necessary to protect the hair from damage. I also carefully finger comb after I shampoo and condition to eliminate any potential damage from when I comb the
hair.
That was suggested to me by someone at an agency in DFW even though mine is barely long enough to get into a short ponytail.
female employees(unless a potential job hazard exists like moving machinery) do not have such a request put upon them.
Interesting to see your comments on the 70s. Although male longhairs were a frequent sight, male ponytails were almost unheard of. I probably saw no more than one or two a year.
That's true. I remember just one guy at uni who wore a barrette, one of those with the leather bit and the wooden stick, but he was an American exchange student. (As you may possibly recall, I'm a Brit, although I have now lived in the US for ages)
Now I on the other hand saw alot of them here in New York.
Legally, they cannot coerce you to get your hair cut off, but can make *suggestions*, but what they really would prefer is to see all Men looking generic with short crops above the ears like most wear these days.
they feel by making a "suggestion" and asking us to compromise by wearing a ponytail it is not unreasonable in their mind even though there is no valid reason for such a request.
Actually they can. I had jobs where they gave the ultimatum
"cut your hair by tomorrow or you're fired."
That in my book is coercion.
Schools can do it too. "Cut your hair by tomorrow morning or you're suspended." I had many an encouter with school when I was growing my hair long in the 60s.
It depends where you are. In DC, hair style is a protected class under the DC Human Rights Act. In Europe, there is a right to self expression under Article 10 of the EU Human Rights Act. Anywhere in the US outside the capital you are in trouble though, unless you can find some way to use race or religion as a reason for your hair. I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.
Hi again.
Some of these tabloids in the U.K. are no better than supermarket tabloids in the U.S.
I'd sooner believe the BBC report on this matter.
Charles