HMV for Mama

Is the writing on the wall for recorded music? Have record bosses finally started to accept that digital music is heading one way - free?

By buying into Mama Group's live music venues, HMV are clearly wanting a piece of the action. Because when all is said and done, its the single component of the music industry as we know it, which will continue to earn a crust long into the future. The rest of HMVs portfolio could, arguably, all be obsolete within 10 years. Records and print are all going one way - digital - unless you're like Carrie Bradshaw in SATC 1, who loves the smell of books. Or a Luddite like me, who still loves getting CDs for my birthday and reading through the thank you's and contributors on the sleeve.

Very few seem to have developed a good model for monetising digital content - either because we just haven't figured it out yet, or because it just doesn't work and will be an alien concept to us in the future.

Of course, HMVs love-in with Mama Group may simply be sold as branching into a related market, or the more obvious synergies (usually means its doomed to fail) - and not just any old synergies, but "powerful" ones at that, according to HMV.

The costs of digital distribution (as opposed to recording) are minuscule - the very opposite of having a physical presence on the High Street - which costs a fortune and is probably losing hand over fist at the moment, unless you're buying gold for cash, from the unfortunates.

Will others follow HMVs lead?