HMV closed its flagship Shibuya store yesterday, bringing an end to an establishment that helped “Shibuya-kei” music go mainstream and one that has been an iconic part of the district’s skyline since 1998, featuring in movies such as “The Grudge” and “Babel”.

The HMV brand in Japan operates under license from its UK-based parent company and first arrived in Japan in 1990, moving to the spot it now occupies eight years later. Together with Tower Records, Wave Shibuya and others, it pushed the Shibuya scene hard while also helping to shape the area as an entertainment and youth hangout mega-spot.

While management gives the official reason for the closing down as internal policy, for most people, it can simply be attributed to change in habits and the switch to downloading music from the Internet.

A quick check of the stats posted on the Recording Industry Association of Japan shows that the production volume of CDs in Japan reached a peak of 587.8 billion yen in 1998 and has been declining every year since then, reaching to 245.9 billion yen in 2009.

Culture Convenience Club Co, the operator of the Tsutaya movie and music rental shop chain, which had moved to acquire HMV Japan, said in June it had given up on the attempt after failing to agree with the current owners of the brand, Daiwa Securities SMBC Principal Investments, on the terms of the transaction.

No announcements on what the replacement will be yet, so for now all we are left with are the memories.

Photo Credit: Karl Baron / Flikr