hmv Canada allready sells new Beyoncé for lower prices

With less than a week left for holiday shopping, hmv Canada ,allready offers its customers the Beyoncé’s latest album. Beyoncé’s surprise release of her new self-titled album is available physically since December 20 th, 2013, and hmv Canada started the selling the album at dump-store prices.

The album which dropped unexpectedl was initially only available for download through iTunes. The release and subsequent limitation of its purchase to iTunes came as surprise to most physical retailers. “It’s a bit alarming that an artist would alienate the physical market consumer when they still represent over 65% of the market-share of sales.” stated Dan Kuczkowski Vice President of Purchasing, hmv Canada. “Our stores were inundated with requests for the CD this week and unfortunately we could not accommodate them.”

hmv Canada, who over the last decade has been no stranger to boycotting the sales of artists who engaged in the exclusive distribution of their products, elected to take a different approach this time around. “Past boycotts by hmv revolved around artists that made exclusive content available to only one retailer. Our customers come first to us and not selling a nationally available product would prove a disservice to them” said Nick Williams, President and CEO, hmv Canada. “We feel it is unfair that our customers were not given the chance to purchase the product in its physical form and have discounted the CD below the digital retail price as both a thank you and an apology to them.”

While Beyoncé was saved the wrath of Scrooge this time around, hmv Canada will continue to monitor these types of exclusives and treat them on a case by case basis. The two-disc package, including both the full length CD plus bonus DVD, will retail at $13.99 in hmv locations across the country until December 24 th, 2013.

To share this article: