The UK's last remaining high street record shop, HMV, is currently in talks with the four major music groups — Sony, Universal, EMI and Warner Music — to discuss letting them take CDs on a sale-or-return basis.
Basically, at the moment, HMV pays out millions upfront to keep its shelves stacked with catalogue albums — ie albums outside of the main chart — but hope that this new model (already implemented by Tescos) could save the beleaguered chain £15m.
Without HMV, the labels would rely on online retailers such as Amazon to sell their catalogue albums, whose lower prices mean lower revenue.
And the thing is, right, if HMV does go under, where will people get their JLS calendars or Michael Jackson 'tribute' merchandise?