Published on: February 5, 2018
by Kevin CoupeThe Washington Times has a story about how as of July 1, Best Buy no longer will carry CDs in its stores.
It will, however, “continue carrying vinyl records, but will start selling albums alongside its turntables.” Recorded music no longer will have its own special section in its stores.
Some background from the Times piece:
“CD sales have been on the decline in the U.S. for years, however, and lately the business has only generated Best Buy about $40 million annually, Billboard reported — a far cry for what used to be one of the nation’s biggest music retailers.
“CD sales in the U.S. market dropped by 16.3 percent from 125 million copies in 2015 to 104.8 million in 2016, according to an annual end-of-year Nielsen report released in early 2017. Taking into consideration CDs, cassettes and vinyl records, physical album sales at mass-merchant retail chain stores decreased by 24.5 percent during that same span, the report said.
“Nielsen’s latest annual year report, report released last month, did not account for CD sales specifically but said that total physical album sales had dropped 16.5 percent since 2016, down to 102.9 million copies in 2017. About 14.3 million of those albums were vinyl, according to the latest report.”
Life spans end. New technology takes over. Old, improved technology gets a new life. And retailers have to adapt.
And I’m not just talking about Best Buy and CDs. This is a metaphor for a process with which every retailer must deal.
It is both the circle of life and an Eye-Opener.
- KC's View: