Stock keeps brokers happy
NO longer relegated to a special section at the back of the store, classical music recordings are selling in numbers that would make most rock bands envious.
'Per capita, Hong Kong is one of the best markets in Asia for Western classical music,' said Klaus Heymann, owner of Asia's largest classical recording company, HNH.
'Per capita, it's better than Japan and South Korea but, of course, Japan is much bigger [in sales].' Welcoming the addition of the HMV superstore, Mr Heymann said the advent of these large retailers would allow consumers to choose from a far greater selection than previously available at most local stores.
'For us, the advent of megastores is a tremendously positive development. Unlike the many small record stores in Hong Kong, a superstore like HMV can display our entire catalogue.
'We have more than 900 titles on our Naxos [label] and 500 on Marco Polo. There were only a few stores that had the whole range.' Classical music buyers usually hated having to walk through the rock section to get to the music they loved, said Chan Ho-lam, manager of marketing and business development.
'It has been our philosophy to have an independent room for the classical people because their needs are different from those of rock music buyers,' Mr Chan said.
The HMV superstore will have a soundproof room for classical music. Decorated in mahogany and brass, it will feature the latest in Western recordings of classical composers and popular classical Chinese recordings.
'In Hong Kong, Chinese classical recordings are extremely successful,' Mr Heymann said.
The HNH label was number one in sales of classical records in Britain for the first quarter of 1995, he said.
'A good selling album can sell 30,000 CDs of one recording and no less than 10,000, while a CD of the Butterfly-Lovers Riding Concerto has sold over 100,000. In the West, these albums will only sell about 1,500 to 2,000, while these figures can easily reach 10 times that in Southeast Asia,' Mr Heymann said.
Formed in 1978 with artists Lim Kek-tjing, former conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and Takako Nishizaka, a Japanese violinist who has lived in the territory for many years, the Hong Kong-based HNH label has grown to become the world's third largest classical recording company.
With 920 titles on its Naxos label, including recordings of works by composers, such as Vivaldi, Mozart and Brahms, and 550 titles on its Marco Polo label, featuring Chinese recordings and rarities, Mr Heymann credited the success of his label to the support of classical music from groups such as the Urban Council, the Academy for Performing Arts (APA) and the annual Arts Festival.
'Every kid coming out of the government music office or the APA is a potential classical music buyer,' Mr Heymann said. 'While these Chinese classical recordings have always been popular and we could always have [in-store] displays for them, what we couldn't get space for was things like the Gregorian Chants to the 20th century classics.
'The dealers were stocked with maybe 50 or a 100 of the most popular titles, like Vivaldi's Four Seasons, but the rest of the catalogue was not represented and the same applied to the Marco Polo repertoire. Now, stores like HMV stock the whole range and our sales have gone up tremendously. We are delighted to have them in Hong Kong,' he said.
