Retailer HMV has called in the administrators putting hundreds of jobs in Scotland, and 4000 across the UK, under threat.
It is the latest blow to hit the high street following the collapse of electricals chain Comet in December and camera retailer Jessops last week.
HMV, which first opened 92 years ago, has 22 stores north of the Border including in Buchanan Street, Glasgow, Edinburgh's Princes Street and some of the country's busiest shopping malls. In total, it has 240 stores in the UK and Ireland.
Accountant Deloitte has been appointed administrator after the firm failed to persuade suppliers to pay £300 million to help it pay off its bank debt and fund an overhaul of the company's business model.
Trading in HMV shares on the London Stock Exchange were also suspended last night.
HMV said in a statement: "The board regrets to announce it has been unable to reach a position where it feels able to continue to trade outside of insolvency protection."
It added that the stores would remain open while a buyer was sought.
The retailer, which has been hit by the move towards purchasing music, films and games online, has been discounting heavily to compete with rivals.
Concern over HMV's future deepened in the past few days as it launched a major sale, prompting further fears about its stability.
On Friday, Jessops closed with the loss of 1400 jobs. HMV's chief executive Trevor Moore had only recently joined the company from Jessops, where he held the same post.
Electrical retailer Comet also closed last month, with the loss of 7000 staff.
Last year also saw the failure of well-known high-street stores JJB Sports, Clinton Cards, Game Group, Peacocks and Blacks Leisure.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article