Best Buy, Walmart cutting back on CD's

[MickeyMac]

Big Box Stores Best Buy, Wal-Mart & Target Cutting Back on CDs...
L.A. Times | Read Full Story >
L.A. Times:

With 4.83 million total sales last week, Billboard notes that the week ending Sept. 12 was the slowest ever in the SoundScan era. That beats the record low of 4.95 million set earlier this summer. Now, one of the largest outlets for major-label product—and one of the industry leaders in driving the price of the CD below $9.99—has declared that it will continue its trend of devoting less floor space to CDs.

The news was somewhat expected, as stories out of this year’s National Assn. of Recording Merchandisers trade convention continued to speculate that mass retailers would further curtail their music offerings. On Wednesday, Billboard’s Glenn Peoples pointed to an Investors.com story that referred to a recent Best Buy investors call in which Best Buy executive Brian Dunn was quoted as saying the “CD section in particular will shrink in space allotment” in favor of higher-margin items.

Best Buy isn’t alone. Wal-Mart also has been gradually cutting the amount of new music it stocks. As CD sales dip, Apple’s iTunes store has become the dominant retail player—accounting for about 28% of the market, according to Billboard estimates. Sales at “non-traditional” outlets—the category Nielsen SoundScan has created for all digital, venue and mail-order purchases—hit an all-time high in 2009, topping the 100 million mark for the first time.

Sales at mass-merchant retailers, which include Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart, have been steadily dipping. SoundScan reported in 2009 that mass-merchant sales declined for the second year in a row. The sector had reported growth from 2002 through 2006, often using new releases as a “loss leader,” a heavily discounted item designed to get foot traffic into the store.

Billboard:

Best Buy plans to allocate less floor space to CDs and DVDs this fall, according to a report of a Tuesday conference call with analysts. No indication was given on the treatment of new release and catalog titles in this latest reduction of CD shelf space. Said CEO Brian Dunn:

“We’ll have another store reset before the holidays, which will include an increase in the space for higher-growth and, in the aggregate, higher-margin categories, like Best Buy Mobile, e-readers and gaming, with a heavy emphasis on new gaming platforms and pre-owned game titles. This will be enabled by our reorganization of the DVD and CD sections. The CD section in particular will shrink in space allotment.”

The extra space created by shrinking CD and DVD sections will help create a space for demonstrations of new motion-controlled video games, Microsoft’s Kinect and Sony’s Move.

Best Buy had a 8.7% share of the U.S. music retail market in 2009, according to Billboard estimates, down from 10.7% in 2008. Walmart had an estimated 12.5% share in 2009, down from 15% in 2008. Both retailers have consistently reduced the CD’s footprint in their stores. (Investors.com)

Investors.com:

The outlook for movies and music dimmed Tuesday when consumer electronics retailer Best Buy (BBY) said it will cut back on shelf space for DVDs and CDs this holiday season.

The entertainment software market has been in decline for years, and so has the space Best Buy has allocated for compact discs and digital video discs. The space for CDs and DVDs is going to get even smaller this fall.

“We’ll have another store reset before the holidays, which will include an increase in the space for higher-growth and, in the aggregate, higher-margin categories, like Best Buy Mobile, e-readers and gaming, with a heavy emphasis on new gaming platforms and pre-owned game titles,” Best Buy Chief Executive Brian Dunn said in a conference call with analysts Tuesday. “This will be enabled by our reorganization of the DVD and CD sections. The CD section in particular will shrink in space

[PlayOn]

This won't phase me. I'd rather buy my CDs online anyway.

[ABlairican Pie]

That's not surprising to me, I can hardly find what I want at Best Buy anyway. More obscure metal product doesn't exist practically on the shelves anymore. There's more to metal than 'Load'-era Metallica. I guess I should order stuff from Amazon or look for more specialty record stores still in existence. I don't know how the music industry survives anymore. I miss the days of actual record shops. Buying a new album was always an event.
Maybe that's what's killing the music industry, they can't create the exitement anymore of shelling out your hard-earned bucks for a killer slab of vinyl with face-melting metal tunes.

[catlover79]

Not surprising, with the upsurge of iTunes, etc. Download the songs and they don't skip and scratch like CDs. Marvelous inventions, the iPod and iTunes.

[dakert]

I can see my Vinyl lps as I read this story about cds

[ABlairican Pie]

Originally Posted by catlover79

Not surprising, with the upsurge of iTunes, etc. Download the songs and they don't skip and scratch like CDs. Marvelous inventions, the iPod and iTunes.

Not so marvelous. The sound quality of iTunes is not so good as actual records or CDs. It's all compressed. I've read that the guys of AC/DC have said they don't want to put their albums on iTunes because of this. In concert, even Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden urged fans to actually go out and buy their new album because the downloadable version sounded
"sty". Things like iTunes may be okay just to get an idea of how a song sounds before you buy the real album.

[MickeyMac]

When Best Buy first opened up here I was amazed at their selection. They had everything from the latest hits, to obsucre stuff and even imports. Now its just the endless ever selling catalog stuff, and the big hits.


Snoreseville!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Besides I would much rather buy a record. They sound way better than a CD or Ipod. Thank God for the independent record stores that are still left.

[MrCleveland]

I think by 2012...everything will be downloadable.

I'll still get Blank CD's, Cassettes, and soon...DVD's.

[catlover79]

Originally Posted by ABlairican Pie

Not so marvelous. The sound quality of iTunes is not so good as actual records or CDs. It's all compressed. I've read that the guys of AC/DC have said they don't want to put their albums on iTunes because of this. In concert, even Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden urged fans to actually go out and buy their new album because the downloadable version sounded
"sty". Things like iTunes may be okay just to get an idea of how a song sounds before you buy the real album.

Well, I guess it has its good and bad points, like everything else. At least on iTunes the songs don't skip.

[Zebra 3]

Originally Posted by MrCleveland

I think by 2012...everything will be downloadable.

But is today's "music" worth listening??

[MickeyMac]

Originally Posted by catlover79

Well, I guess it has its good and bad points, like everything else. At least on iTunes the songs don't skip.

If records are taken care of properly, and played on quality turntables, and the record needle is changed often, then they dont skip.


Cant help it I am a record purist until the end.

[Hawkee]

The reason why the music sections are disappearing from stores is because since the invention of MP3 players and the IPod people have a new way to enjoy music and just like when Sony invented the Walkman portable cassette player and the Discman portable cd player people can take their music anywhere and the MP3 player and IPod have become the new versions of the Walkman and Discman. But I agree that the music sections of stores have shrunk and are no longer big sections anymore. Take for example my Walmart's music section is now very small and is hard to find any cd they have in there. Like when I was looking through the music section at Walmart yesterday they had the new releases in one section and all they had was Christina Aguilera's new album and the rest of the new releases were mixed in with the $5,00 cds and I remember when my Walmart had two sections of music and now it's all replaced with shelves of movies and TV DVDs. I don't know why Walmart did this to make cds hard to find. Target also did this and when I went to do Black Friday shopping last year at Target they had only one shelf of music and one copy of every cd but my Target used to have two sections of music before their music section shrunk too. And when MP3 players and IPods and music apps such as Pandora became popular it caused music stores to go out of business. If you recall music stores were huge in malls and with stores like Musicland Sam Goody Wherehouse Music Camelot Music and music supermarkets like Media Play and Virgin Megastore you were transported into another world because you can find any cd by any artist you could name. But like some retail chains once digital music debuted Virgin Megastore and Wherehouse Music went broke because of this MP3 boom. Another thing you cannot find on music store shelves anymore is CD singles and I remember buying cd singles of new artists to see if I liked the artist's new song and I would discover more about the artist as well. But CD singles have disappeared from shelves and also went digital with many stores selling exclusive bonus songs which can be downloaded to an MP3 player. But as music becomes more popular through the years we will see music sections slowly make a return to stores and music stores will open again in cities and small towns because everyone loved going to the music stores to listen to great albums and find a great bargain on music cds. It will be a shame if cds will no longer be sold in stores anymore because people really like music a lot and you can never take music away from people of this generation
Bestie

[D-Dey]

Originally Posted by catlover79

Well, I guess it has its good and bad points, like everything else. At least on iTunes the songs don't skip.

I have an iTunes recording that skips.


https://www.discogs.com/Datura-Seeds...elease/2758803

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/wh...o-be/383274106

[Hawkee]

The Kmart store near me also got rid of it's music section and now has put movies and appliances in it's place and I liked Kmart's music section because you could find any hard to find cd there and they should bring the music section back because it was so cool and really great to look through
Bestie

[JSP]

Apple Music forever, as far as I’m concerned. Good riddance to physical forms of music that take up space. Streaming on your device is where the future lies now.