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Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

Old 02-02-18, 08:48 PM
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Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

https://www.billboard.com/articles/b...-cds-only-when

To summarize, Best Buy will stop selling CDs come July 1. Target, who has already greatly downsized in recent years (especially during the past 2 - 3 years), wants to pay their vendors ONLY for CDs that they sell, and it appears to be the same situation for DVDs.

It's sad to see this happening. I get that they're not going to keep what doesn't sell, but to see it happening so fast is crazy. It's sad to see art (music and film) become so disposable these days. But I guess this is what happens when such an emphasis is put on streaming.
Old 02-02-18, 11:19 PM
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Re: Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

That is really, really sad if all this comes to fruition.
Old 02-02-18, 11:52 PM
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Re: Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

RIP Compact discs. It had a good 30+ year run. Would not surprise me if Amazon starts slowly phasing it out in favor of it's digital music.

Any potential re-sale value is going to hit absolute rock bottom. It wouldn't surprise if they start hitting $1-2 used prices at FYE and other retailers still selling used product.
Old 02-03-18, 01:32 AM
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Re: Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

CD has been a moribund format since the mp3 was developed.

It's difficult tomeven buy a CD player these days, so it stands to reason that CDs are on the decline.
Old 02-03-18, 08:53 AM
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Re: Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

Originally Posted by DJariya
RIP Compact discs. It had a good 30+ year run. Would not surprise me if Amazon starts slowly phasing it out in favor of it's digital music.

Any potential re-sale value is going to hit absolute rock bottom. It wouldn't surprise if they start hitting $1-2 used prices at FYE and other retailers still selling used product.
I still buy tons of physical media, in store and especially online, like Amazon, so I'd hate to see them phase them out. I doubt they will, at least right now. They already push their streaming service since it's the first result when you try to search for music.

I'd say it gives stores like FYE more of a reason to raise prices since they specialize in that stuff, but they already charge MSRP and you can't really get much higher than that.

I'm thankful for the convenience of streaming, but I absolutely hate what it's done to the industry. Oh well, if CDs make a niche come back (like vinyl has), I'll be all set. I have hundreds of CDs (which I should probably weed through and sell off the ones I don't want while I can still get some sort of money for them).
Old 02-03-18, 06:48 PM
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Re: Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

I thought one of the reasons CD sales had gone down besides the rise of mp3 and streaming was the comeback that vinyl has had. Why doesn't Best Buy focus more on selling vinyl then? The current store setup they have is basically little markets for Samsung, Apple, Microsoft plus a few things here and there, including a very reduced media section. I know I hardly go there anymore cause I can things cheaper almost everywhere else. What is going to make Best Buy attract customers? Their website is also ridiculous as it's becoming harder to find items. For a technology store, it seems they are years behind with their thumbs up their asses.
Old 02-03-18, 07:13 PM
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Re: Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

The CD market is actually still quite healthy, especially outside the United States. The music labels here in America don't feel like propping up the remaining CD market as retailers have never liked the format's very thin margins.

The CD market left in America has now mostly switched to online retail sales. Best Buy and possibly Target pulling out does hurt older acts that still have fans buying CDs.
Old 02-03-18, 08:55 PM
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Re: Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

Tower Records is still a very healthy and growing business in Japan. Watch the recent Tower Records documentary.

Also in Hong Kong, HMV is still in business selling CDs in high rent areas.

Unlike the U.S., Asia still has a strong appetite for physical media even though they are a little expensive.

Every time I’ve traveled to Asia in the last decade, I still see Music and movie stores in business and most appear to still have foot traffic.

Who knows maybe Americans blew their wad in spending in the late 90s and early 2000s and have less disposable income these days for CDs.
Old 02-03-18, 10:23 PM
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Re: Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

Originally Posted by Red Hood
I thought one of the reasons CD sales had gone down besides the rise of mp3 and streaming was the comeback that vinyl has had. Why doesn't Best Buy focus more on selling vinyl then?
Vinyl has seen a resurgence in popularity in the last few years, but it hasn't come close to filling the gap caused by the decline in CD sales.

I'd love to see vinyl go big, but currently people seem content to stream music from places like Spotify than own it on physical formats. So far, it seems to attract only a small part of the music market who want to collect LPs.
Old 02-04-18, 02:39 AM
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Re: Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

RIP scratches on CD's
Old 02-04-18, 07:08 AM
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Re: Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

Originally Posted by Josh-da-man
Vinyl has seen a resurgence in popularity in the last few years, but it hasn't come close to filling the gap caused by the decline in CD sales.
https://www.riaa.com/u-s-sales-database/

Actually, vinyl's done a lot more than I thought, which may be why big box stores are carrying them now. Vinyl went from a low of $14 million annual revenue in 2005 to $429 million in 2016. On the other hand, CD's went from $10.5 billion to $1.2 billion in that same period. And streaming subscriptions went from $149 million to $2.2 billion.

Digital downloads are on the decline after peaking in 2012. $2.8 billion in 2012, down to $1.8 billion in 2016.
Old 02-04-18, 03:33 PM
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Re: Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

Originally Posted by rjh_54
It's sad to see this happening. I get that they're not going to keep what doesn't sell, but to see it happening so fast is crazy. It's sad to see art (music and film) become so disposable these days. But I guess this is what happens when such an emphasis is put on streaming.
Aren't these streaming services advertised more as a replacement for radio rather than CDs? Whenever I hear someone talking about something like Spotify, they always say something like they don't listen the radio anymore because of this. I never really hear them say they don't buy CDs because of these services, although they might be people who never really bought CDs to begin with.
Old 02-04-18, 04:13 PM
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Re: Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

I don't buy CD's anymore because the only place I listen to music is in my car, and my current car doesn't have a CD Player.
Old 02-04-18, 07:29 PM
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Re: Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

Originally Posted by big e
Aren't these streaming services advertised more as a replacement for radio rather than CDs? Whenever I hear someone talking about something like Spotify, they always say something like they don't listen the radio anymore because of this. I never really hear them say they don't buy CDs because of these services, although they might be people who never really bought CDs to begin with.
I don't necessarily think so. While it is good competition for the actual radio and radio apps (like Pandora), apps like Spotify and Apple music are becoming the main outlets for people to consume music.

It's taken over so much that the rules for Billboard's two biggest charts (the Hot 100 for singles and the Billboard 200 for album sales) have changed to incorporate streaming numbers. It's a screwy system that isn't really fair, but that's a rant for another time.

I'm in my 20s, and even though I have Spotify I still buy CDs. I like to support artists and I've had quite the collection since I was young. If I buy CDs when I'm with people I get the occasional, "Why buy that? It's on Spotify".
Old 02-04-18, 07:35 PM
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Re: Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

Answer with "Because it sounds better, and I still want to hear it when it's TAKEN OFF Spotify." I have a few playlists on there and it seems whenever I check them at least one song has been removed.
Old 02-04-18, 07:50 PM
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Re: Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

Yeah, Pandora is like the radio, but Spotify is a CD/song replacement because you can listen to albums and make playlists.

I know someone who produces music, and he said that while the shift to digital albums was doable, the shift to subscription streaming hurt him a lot.
Old 02-04-18, 08:10 PM
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Re: Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

Originally Posted by davidh777
Yeah, Pandora is like the radio, but Spotify is a CD/song replacement because you can listen to albums and make playlists.

I know someone who produces music, and he said that while the shift to digital albums was doable, the shift to subscription streaming hurt him a lot.
Streaming will hurt the industry in so many ways, if it hasn't already. I'm truly curious to see what it will be like a few years down the line.
Old 02-04-18, 09:09 PM
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Re: Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

When Spotify started in the US, I thought they limited you to how many times you could play a song- something like one time per day or week. It seems like that hasn't been the case though as with the free version (with commercials force-played when selecting every few songs) I've played many tracks to my heart's content. I still don't assume that I'll ALWAYS be able to hear them that way though, and have bought the CDs for things I truly care about. I could see kids or others with little money just using Spotify though- which again begs the question why wouldn't the record labels refuse to license material to them for so little return?

A lot of popular music is so bad that its intended audience wouldn't care about sound quality anyways. I've seen people actually listening to current top 40 crap through the speaker on their CELLPHONES, something that's barely usable just as a ringer! I feel like saying "Do you actually think that sounds GOOD at all?" Tower Records founder Russ Solomon commented on that too, saying that it's sad how people are moving towards listening on small tinny speakers when you need BIG ones to truly appreciate a good recording!
Old 02-04-18, 09:28 PM
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Re: Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

Originally Posted by Alan Smithee
When Spotify started in the US, I thought they limited you to how many times you could play a song- something like one time per day or week. It seems like that hasn't been the case though as with the free version (with commercials force-played when selecting every few songs) I've played many tracks to my heart's content. I still don't assume that I'll ALWAYS be able to hear them that way though, and have bought the CDs for things I truly care about. I could see kids or others with little money just using Spotify though- which again begs the question why wouldn't the record labels refuse to license material to them for so little return?

A lot of popular music is so bad that its intended audience wouldn't care about sound quality anyways. I've seen people actually listening to current top 40 crap through the speaker on their CELLPHONES, something that's barely usable just as a ringer! I feel like saying "Do you actually think that sounds GOOD at all?" Tower Records founder Russ Solomon commented on that too, saying that it's sad how people are moving towards listening on small tinny speakers when you need BIG ones to truly appreciate a good recording!
I've always wondered about labels refusing to license material, at least for a limited time. I think at least of the factors involved is charts. Since streaming counts towards the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200, I don't think artists and labels would want to potentially alienate people by leaving their music off of a huge platform like Spotify and potentially risk losing those "sales" or higher chart positions. Only high-profile artists with a big following could pull that off, like Adele, who ended up breaking (and doubling) a record that was held by Britney Spears for 15 years before digital and streaming was even a thing. Taylor Swift has also did it (though not beating Adele or Britney), but the bottom line is, it didn't negatively impact their sales because their albums were so highly anticipated, but not every artist is like that.

As far as sound quality goes, the general public just doesn't seem to care. I feel like people now only really care about the convenience of being able to listen to their music whenever or wherever regardless of how great or terrible the quality may be.
Old 02-06-18, 03:22 AM
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Re: Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

If it weren't so sad, I'd be laughing when an almost 40-year old technology (16-bit 44.1 khz lossless digital PCM audio) is many times *better* in quality than what "the vast majority" of people today have been conditioned to in the name of convenience be made to think is a "better" format... streaming.

This makes me so angry, that I'd like to rile each one of those idiots who have helped lower the bar in audio fidelity since the Napster days 15+ years ago.

So, the rapacious music industry doesn't care, and we have seen a massive decline in music in general and a public that has been brainwashed by those capitalists into thinking "good riddance to CDs!".... Balderdash, poppycock and falderal!
Old 02-06-18, 09:51 AM
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Re: Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

Originally Posted by Obi-Wan Jabroni
I don't buy CD's anymore because the only place I listen to music is in my car, and my current car doesn't have a CD Player.
Me neither for the same reason since my car also doesn't have a CD player, the only exceptions have been a couple soundtracks (Hamilton from Broadway and The Greatest Showman movie) and that's because my wife's car still has a CD player and for Amazon's AutoRip feature.

Originally Posted by zyzzle
If it weren't so sad, I'd be laughing when an almost 40-year old technology (16-bit 44.1 khz lossless digital PCM audio) is many times *better* in quality than what "the vast majority" of people today have been conditioned to in the name of convenience be made to think is a "better" format... streaming.

This makes me so angry, that I'd like to rile each one of those idiots who have helped lower the bar in audio fidelity since the Napster days 15+ years ago.

So, the rapacious music industry doesn't care, and we have seen a massive decline in music in general and a public that has been brainwashed by those capitalists into thinking "good riddance to CDs!".... Balderdash, poppycock and falderal!
I am shocked that you found a reason to blame and complain about technology. Shocked. The funny thing is even with higher quality CD's or even lossless codecs, it's not like the majority of people over those last 40 years have been listening to them on devices or equipment that really made it matter.

And music is most certainly one of those things where convenience and ease of access to variety and large libraries is certainly is of HUGE importance.

Last edited by fumanstan; 02-06-18 at 11:39 AM.
Old 02-06-18, 09:53 AM
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Re: Best Buy / bestbuy.com discounts and deals on Blu-ray

Did you guys see that Best Buy is going to stop selling music CDs July 1st?
Wonder how much longer for DVDs/blurays?
The article I read also mentioned that Target wants to go to a pay-from-scan system for all physical media or stop carrying it altogether??

Sorry for the OT post.
Old 02-06-18, 09:56 AM
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Re: Best Buy / bestbuy.com discounts and deals on Blu-ray

There's already a thread on the subject in Music Talk and another one in the Store Forum

https://forum.dvdtalk.com/music-talk...-cds-july.html

https://forum.dvdtalk.com/store-foru...-industry.html
Old 02-06-18, 10:49 AM
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Re: Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs Effective 7/1, Target Pushes Away CD & DVD Industry

Originally Posted by fumanstan

I am shocked that you found a reason to blame and complain about technology. Shocked.
I'm shocked that he hasn't yet tied it to being Amazon's fault!
Old 02-06-18, 01:05 PM
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Re: Best Buy / bestbuy.com discounts and deals on Blu-ray

Originally Posted by rwsharpjr
Did you guys see that Best Buy is going to stop selling music CDs July 1st?
Wonder how much longer for DVDs/blurays?
The article I read also mentioned that Target wants to go to a pay-from-scan system for all physical media or stop carrying it altogether??

Sorry for the OT post.
That does kind of suck, but it has been a long time coming. Their music section has been slowly dwindling over the last couple of years, to what it is now. If it isn't something that came out this month, or one of the top 20 or so selling albums of all time, they aren't going to have it in store.

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