HMV's Doug Putman wants to expand vinyl and live events in stores

The music retailer fell into administration for the second time in six years before Christmas last year, and was bought out by Sunrise Records' Doug Putman in February.

Speaking to Music Week, Putman revealed what he plans to do with the company moving forward, "Why didn’t we jump harder into vinyl? Why didn’t we promote in-stores a lot more? I think there were over 100 performances in HMV last year. I challenged the team that I want 10 times that. I want 1,000 performances. So it’s taking the things that you know people like about what we do and just hyping it up even more. So you know people want vinyl, give them more. Give them as much as they want until they say it’s too much, then let’s back off."

Last week Music Business Worldwide reported that HMV partnered with digital ticket providers Tixserve for their future in-store events.

Adding more about how he's going to move the company forward, Putman said to Music Week, "What does a [customer] want in their store? Well, they need stock of course, they want good pricing, they want knowledgeable staff, they want that experience. So I think just the fact that I’m so relentless on these things, the team buys into that and that makes a world of difference."

Speaking about vinyl slowing down, Putman said, "I get that the pace of it is slowing but we’ve just got to keep making it easier for the customers to get into it. I think we can develop new customers into it. Frankly, it’s a really great number where it’s at now. If we can just keep being the one place that everyone thinks of for entertainment product, there’s a customer that going to be coming in and buying from us for a long time."