Reacting to fading sales in most types of disc-based entertainment, Best Buy plans to slash shelf space for CDs and DVDs, making room for things that sell better, which encompasses just about everything else at Best Buy.
Click reports Best Buy will devote the floorspace to video games, netbooks and other things not made by the Black Eyed Peas.
Best Buy chief executive Brian Dunn explained the shift in a conference call:
“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 news hear isn’t that Best Buy is finally making better use of the space hogged by CDs, but that it took this long to make the move.
What was the last CD you bought? Mine was Bree Sharp’s A Cheap and Evil Girl in 1999.
Best Buy Slashing CD, DVD Shelf Space For New Products [Click via High-def Digest]
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“The news hear isn’t that…”
Yeesh.
Phil please proofread (hear vs here). Why this is news I have no idea. Many other retailers still carry CDs and I know several people that prefer CDs to digital downloads.
There really aren’t that many retailers left that sell music. I live in a fairly big area (about 150,000 people) and with Best Buy largely dropping music the only stores left with music are Wal-Mart, Target, and K-Mart. Both Wal-Mart and K-Mart won’t sell unedited music and refuse to carry certain titles (yet have no problem carrying movies like The Last House on the Left unrated) so that just leaves Target. I haven’t bought a CD in years anyway, I’d rather just buy songs on itunes.
Commerce Bank – 2 year, 1.25%
+1
Bank One (remember them?) 1.75% and an extra .5% if you held checking/savings with them too! Too bad Chase bough them then promptly destroyed the moral and goodwill of the bankers.
Uhh, that would be because the Federal Reserve rate is so low. you really think Bank One was better than Charles Schwab & all the good online banks today?
When a friend moved out of country a few years ago, I bought a bunch of his old CDs for a dollar or something similar. Haven’t bought one new in I don’t remember how long.
I bought Ra’s CD “Black Sun” a few years ago… before that, it was a couple of their other albums a few years before that.
Three Doors Down, I believe in 2001 or 2002. Only because I had dialup internet and to download the album would of taken me longer than a week!
When are people going to learn that it’s “would HAVE” not would of.
1997, because at that point, it became waaaay cheaper to buy a CD-R and legally pirate the music instead. This country is soooo screwed up.
“Legally pirate” A bit of a contradiction in terms there. Easily pirate I can see but I sure don’t see what makes it legal…
Mmmm, interesting link in the original post and I might not have commented if I had read it first but I still don’t think it applies to pirating…
what is this “see-dee” of which you speak?
I still buy CDs. I like having a tangible item with my music on it, oh and I can play my CD anywhere with no DRM! I can’t remember the last MP3 I bought; the last CD I bought was Beneath It All by Hey Monday.
Pretty much this. I like having the ability to make it work wherever and however I want. Even iTunes with its drm-less files makes you jump through hoops should your computer crash or to move a file from one computer to another.
Just this week I bought 3 cds. I like to think I throw off their metrics when I buy them, and even more when I get Bad Religion, Jimmy Eat World and Iron Maiden in one trip.
Which is why when I buy a track on Itunes, drm or not, I grab it from the itunes music directory and RIP it to high quality MP3
You can have the MP3 quality as high as you want, but if your source is a download in a lossy format, you won’t be helping the actual audio quality.
…which makes absolutely ZERO difference. You’re simply converting from one lossy format to another and most likely making the sound quality worse.
The Amazon music store is the way to go. Good quality MP3s, DRM-free, and no personal information in the files like Apple puts in.
Same. I like having a hard-copy backup for my music, basically. And as good as my Ipod is, the music quality is so much better on a CD than the MP3.
i’m with you. i converted from electronic audio back to CDs because of sound quality and universal ease of use.
Me too. I do get downloads from time to time, but I’m likely to make a backup copy on a disc in case my hard drive crashes or something. And I like soundtracks, some of which are older and rare and not available except on disc, because I have to get a used copy.
I’ve bought a few CDs over the past five years, but mostly through Amazon. Same story with books and DVDs. It is a lot less of a bother to just open up the Amazon web page or the Amazon iPhone app and just place the order the to drive to a store and hope that they have what you are looking for in stock.
Same here. I rarely, if ever, buy CDs/DVDs at a store, almost always either amazon or ebay (can get used discs really cheap sometimes), but I do still buy them. I usually then upload them onto my computer to download into my ipod. I can’t play my ipod in the car, so need CDs for that. I also prefer to play the DVDs on the TV, so more than one person can watch them.
I agree. And usually (at least with the CDs I typically buy) I spend less buying them used than I would spend buying the mp3 download of the album. Then I have a high-quality, tangible, DRM-free product that I can rip to mp3 myself. Best of both worlds.
This has been bothering me for awhile now. In the past I use to go to best buy all the time for my movie soundtrack cd fix. Over the years their soundtrack section has been shrinking more and more. Sometimes I would find it cheaper at best buy using a coupon than to find it online. Oh well I guess I am going to have to stick with amazon from now on and spend less time shopping at best buy.
If there’s a CD Warehouse nearby or something similar, they usually have a big used soundtrack section. I’ve gotten them at Vintage Stock also.
Soundtracks rule!
golden opportunity missed
The news hear[sic] isn’t that Best Buy is finally making better use of the Spacehog‘ged by CDs, but that it took this long to make the move. In The Mean Time what was the last CD you bought? Mine was Bree Sharp’s A Cheap and Evil Girl in 1999.
Nice!
Clever. And man, I used to love that band.
My very large (and expensive) CD collection was stolen back around 1999. I never did bother to replace them, as they were a pain to move and were too much of a liability. The only time I ever buy CDs is for local or regional bands that play at bars in my town. It’s really the only way to get their music and I like supporting the little guy.
I still buy CDs (when I can afford to nowadays) but almost never from Best Buy because of the mark-up. I usually get them either used online or directly from the artists. IMO the sound quality is still better than MP3, plus I prefer OWNING and controlling it outright.
Actually, I bought Gorillaz’ album Plastic Beach a couple months ago. I like having the artwork.
I bought Gorillaz and Massive Attack- Heligoland. I like having a hard copy and still listen to full albums in the car. Of course, I bought them at Amazon for less than the price on iTunes.
Last CD I bought? Rob Zombie’s Hellbilly Deluxe 2. I still buy some CDs, depending on the artwork and extras with it. Of course, all of these are now on my ipod so I suppose it is a bit silly and space-consuming to buy them…
I like CDs so I have a full quality audio version to listen to. All my digital music is compressed to fit on ipods. I know, I can keep a high and low quality track, but it eats up hard drive space.
Also, back in college I was a “music king” for OWNING a a few hundred CDs, now days with kids downloading music form each other, music collections range in the thousands of albums.
Ben Folds – Lonely Avenue
First, it’s “the news HERE” (not hear, unless you’re making a pun)
So who else sells CDs? F.Y.E.? Yeah like I’ll shop there…
i honestly cant remember… i dont think it was this millennium.
People still buy music CD’s, they just don’t buy them from Best Buy. I don’t need to waste time with an annoying cashier trying to upsell me an extended warranty for a CD, nor do I want any faux free magazine subscriptions.
plus the shitty selection. The only reason I buy CDs anymore is if it’s a small label and it’s the only way they do business. That sort of thing I still buy and will continue to do so.
But why the hell would ANYBODY buy a Black-eyed Peas CD in this day and age? It’s all over the usual download sites and bittorrented to death as well.
last week in at Soundgarden, one the Rolling Stones 25 best record stores in the country, I bought HIM – Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666, I love having cover art, liner notes and something the band can sign.. you can’t do that with a MP3
I still buy CDs. The selection of downloadable classical music on Amazon sucks.
Clutch – From Beale Street to Oblivion
I got it via other means first, but spent the money to support the band. They make great music, are independent of major labels and survive off media sales and tours.
Well worth 17 bucks to me.
My wife won a George Strait CD last year at a giveaway a local radio station was doing at a fall festival, but I can’t recall the last time I bought a CD. Maybe 9-10 years ago?
i recently converted from mp3 audio back to CDs b/c of sound quality.
this is a huge bummer as best buy was the last “local” store i could buy CDs. Local album stores are 100% vinyl now.
The soundtrack to Spawn. Funnily enough, I got that a few years ago because the place I work wouldnt allow a) mp3 players or b) homemade CDs. Now, they allow iPods.
I’ve bought several Putumayo Kids in the last few years. I like having them in the car on long rides with the little ones. It’s just not something I need in the super-portable format of an mp3.
I never got them at Best Buy, though. Usually Barnes & Noble.
But otherwise? Oh God, it’s been at least since 2002…I think I bought an Our Lady Peace CD that year. (Oh, the musical foibles of youth.)
Our Lady Peace is not a foible IMO…they are amazing. haha
I dunno. I think that Best Buy suffers from being lame. They have poor prices and poor selection. If they are having trouble selling spinny disks, then it’s not so much because the market is down in general. They are just bad at it.
Best Buy may be getting rid of CDs but Fry’s is resurrecting Vinyl.
They have a rather comprehensive DVD & BD section too. Better selection of washers too.
the only thing I buy form Best buy are CDs. On the release date, they have the lowest price than any other places.
I don’t buy a lot of CDs, only from bands which I know I”ll enjoy most of the songs on the CD.
I bought a CD last month..from FYE for 13-16 bucks.. if I waited until I got home, it wuold’ve been 9 bucks or something at best buy.
What was the last CD I bought? Laetitia Sadier’s solo disc, last week.
What was the last CD I bought from Best Buy? Well, that’s a tougher question…..
Brian Auger. I go to Half.com or some other used media outlet. I buy old CDS, copy the music to my server and the CD goes away. This way, I get full resolution copies of the music I want and the RIAA won’t bother me. I may lend or sell my cds later. Sure it’s more of a hassle than Limewire or torrents, but it’s safer.
I have no idea. I donated all my CDs to a local radio station. Got a pretty decent little tax credit out of it, too.
If I had to guess, it was probably Pantera – Reinventing the Steel.
The last CD I bought was [insert obscure indie band here]
Rancid: Let the Dominoes Fall 2009
“Silversun Pickups – Swoon”. I only buy music from non-RIAA acts.
Last CD I bought was Sheryl Crow’s “100 Miles From Memphis,” about a month ago… at Best Buy.
Kickin’ it old skool!
I buy CDs to support the bands I like, but that’s very rare. The last time I bought a CD was either Rammstein’s “Liebe ist for alle da” or GWAR’s “Lust in Space”, I can’t remember which came out second.
People actually listen to GWAR? I assume they were all stage show (which I love BTW).
Of course people listen to them because their music is fucking awesome. Now you need to go out and buy some CDs.
I recommend “Violence Has Arrived” and “Beyond Hell”; those are my favorites. Avoid “We Kill Everything”, as that is their worst album, which is something they freely admit. “Scumdogs of the Universe” is really good too.
Bad Religion – The Dissent of Man (as part of a package with a t-shirt and signed copy of their singer’s new book)
The soundtrack from Say Anything (not on Amazon MP3; too old probably)
Muse – HAARP (live CD/DVD combo)
My ears can’t tell the difference between a CD and high-bitrate MP3 and I keep my music backed up, so there is only the occasional case where a CD is worth it: if it comes with other media or is only available in digital form on iTunes, which I refuse to buy music from.
I just bought Dissent of Man last night!
I don’t get how people can stand the really low fidelity MP3s that are all over Internet music stores. Bleh.
The big online music stores use pretty decent quality. Amazon is 256kbps VBR mp3 and iTunes is 256kbps AAC. On all but the highest end equipment, it’s pretty much indistinguishable from CD. I guess it would be nice if they gave the option of lossless formats, but most people don’t want their music files to be quite that large.
I prefer to support my local record shop, so I still buy CDs. I can’t remember the last CD I bought though. Maybe the Dead Weather’s new one.
The Best Buy I shop at up here in the Great White North has already moved their CDs around and made the Video Game section much much bigger and the CD section a little tiny tiny aisle (with mostly just the latest stuff/”chart toppers” on display).
Emily Autumn – only because the downloads were not available for her music. Other than that – about 7 years ago.
I would rather buy a CD, both because of the tangible aspect of it and because I am actually buying more information than when I buy a compressed audio file. That means I rarely buy ANY music, because I rarely buy CDs. Whenever I do, I rip it and then have a hell of a time figuring out where to store my CD. The big spinning CD rack is so 1989.
I put my entire CD collection including the booklets and case inserts into a binder, and gave the cases away.
One less store to go to now. Pretty soon there’ll be no reason to leave the house.
I still buy cd’s all the time, but unless I’m buying the week it comes out, Best Buy’s prices are through the roof.
I don’t remember, but it could very well have been that TMBG album. Is that Flood?
Last week – I bought the first album from The Adoring Heirs (a local band); But that was from a band member.
From a music store… probably 5 or 6 years ago when I bought white light rock and roll review from Matthew Good
The last CD I bought was Mystikal – Unpredictable back in 97-98
“Bree Sharp’s A Cheap and Evil Girl”
I love that one. :3
I borrow CDs from the library.
I just listen to them of course, I don’t rip them to my own MP3 collection.
I don’t go to Best Buy often, but when I do I can’t help but notice the vast section of CDs, completely void of human life, and wonder why they continued with that nonsense. It’s good to know they’ve come to their senses.
I can’t remember the last CD I bought either. I was just lamenting the fact that physical media is so invalid because I’m in the mood to make a mix, and making a playlist just isn’t the same.
Also, +1 for Bree Sharp.
And yet people still seem to buy DVD’s. How long till the masses finally learn that DVD’s suck for exactly the same reasons that CD’s suck.