The last major retailer of music and films on the High Street HMV is to be placed in the hands of administrators, putting more than four-thousand jobs at risk.

It follows other national chains - such as Jessops and Comet goods - in succumbing to its online competitors.

HMV will continue to trade while the administrators try to find a buyer for its 239 stores in the UK and the Irish Republic.

Andy Heath, the chairman of UK Music and director of the record company Beggars Group, told today presenter John Humphrys that "it's very very sad to see HMV go into administration".

'They haven't been slaughtered by the internet they have been wounded very badly,' he added.

"There is still significant and very large… demand for music on the High Street', he said and went on to explain his view that while "HMV haven't been in the right corporate shape to fight the competition of the internet", he still believed that there was a future for the company.

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