hmv Canada Discounts Beyoncé

Beyoncé's new album hits the shelves of hmv Canada at a special price, as a thank-you to fans for their patience.

TORONTO, Dec. 20, 2013 /CNW/ - With less than a week left for holiday shopping, hmv Canada, the country's premiere retail destination for music and entertainment, is pleased to have another blockbuster release and promotion to offer its customers for their gifting needs.  Beyoncé's surprise release of her new self-titled album will be available physically in all hmv Canada retail locations on December 20^th, 2013.

The album which dropped unexpectedly, last Friday, was initially only available for download through one distributor.  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.

About hmv Canada

hmv Canada's first store opened in 1986, from which it has grown to become a Canadian entertainment market leader with 111 stores from Newfoundland to British Columbia, including flagship locations in Toronto, Edmonton, and Montreal. hmv Canada is an innovator in its market, launching in 2009 hmvdigital.ca its digital  music store, in 2010, the purehmv customer rewards program, which has attracted over 1.5 million paid cardholders.  hmv has been named Canadian Music Retailer of the Year for the past 21 years, and has also been recognized as the Canadian Entertainment Network DVD Retailer of the Year. In July 2011, Re:Capital Canada, a subsidiary of Hilco Capital, acquired hmv Canada from the UK's HMV Group plc.

SOURCE: HMV Canada Inc.