The high street is dwindling and HMV are teetering on the edge, but Canada have saved the day for the UK’s biggest music retailer.

HMV had a bad start to 2019 after a disappointing holiday period left their future uncertain. The music shop, and biggest physical entertainment retailer in the UK, went into administration at the start of January after clawing it’s way out of the same position 5 years ago.

It may represent a dying high street as online shopping becomes the norm and streaming services like Netflix and Spotify replace CDs and DVDS, but there are people who still have faith in store fronts. Canadian mogul Doug Putman has bought HMV taking over their 100 shops and protecting 1,500 jobs from uncertainty. Putman owns Sunrise Records, a Canadian music store that is seeing growth even in the times of uncertainty for physical retail.

The deal will unfortunately still see 27 HMV stores closing immediately, losing 455 jobs with another 122 warehouse jobs being lost in the coming weeks. However, Putman hopes his re-organisation can help the music, film, and TV retailer thrive in a competitive market that is converting to digital more-and-more every day.

Putman said in a statement: “We are delighted to acquire the most iconic music and entertainment business in the UK and add nearly 1,500 employees to our growing team. By catering to music and entertainment lovers, we are incredibly excited about the opportunity to engage customers with a diverse range of physical format content, and replicate our success in Canada”

Although physical music sales are dwindling it’s seeing a resurgence in some ways, like the boom of vinyl sales as they become more of a collectors item than a music format. On their endurance, Putman adds: “We know the physical media business is here to stay and we greatly appreciate all the support from the suppliers, landlords, employees and most importantly our customers.”