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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My last CD was The Social Network by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, so yes, people still buy CDs, just maybe not from places like Best Buy. Most of my entertainment comes from Amazon.
Yes, I purchase my CDs from Amazon too!
Step 1 – Listen to track on YouTube
Step 2. – Log on to Amazon and order CD
Step 3 – Rip CD to MP3 player editing out unenjoyable tracks.
Step 4. – Blast ear drums..
The last CD I brought was the new Stone Temple Pilots. I also plan to purchase the new Trapt CD. I enjoy looking at the booklets. I understand the whole convenience of downloading music but I am pretty much old school.
Steel Panther – Feel the Steel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_r7ZxigS0g
I buy CDs for small bands at their gigs if they’re selling them. Pretty much nothing from retail CD sales of bands with a major record deal goes to the artist anyway, so I prefer not to support the organization that sues its own customers. If a band I like goes on concert near me then I’ll go to it and they’ll get paid.
HA! i remember buying bree sharp back in the day…
I still buy cds. I rip them into mp3, but I like owning the cd instead of licensing a track.
I don’t shop at Best Buy, but I do still buy CDs — can’t get the band’s autographs on an iTunes download!
I guess that means I’ll be going to Fry’s more, as I still buy CDs and DVDs.
My last CD was Weezer’s “Hurley”, which I’m not in love with, but it is growing on me.
About half of “Cheap and Evil Girl” still resides on my iPod.
Mine was Cake.
I buy CDs all the time. On Amazon though, not Best Buy. The quality of iTunes and other downloadable files are usually crap. Until all these downloads are available in a lossless format like FLAC I’ll continue to buy CDs.. and the occasional vinyl record. Yes.. Vinyl.
Yes, yes, yes.
FLAC is a great format. If ripped from masters, the fidelity on them can surpass CDs.
The last CD I bought was “Warp Riders” by The Sword about a month ago. I’m not much for paid downloads as if I’m going to be buying the music anyway, I at least want the physical package. Those of you who steal music can go to hell as far as I’m concerned.
I bought my dad Radiohead’s Greatest Hits compilation for the holiday last year. He has an iPhone, and yet still does not want to put any music on there. I don’t understand. I’ve tried to show him how, he just…likes CDs, I guess.
My local Best Buy is already seriously culling their DVD section. Which is too bad because they used to have some really good deals on late model tv series, and $14.99-$19.99 for 22-24 episodes of an enjoyable, commercial-free tv series makes for pretty cheap entertainment.
I still buy CDs unless I can get DRM free cheaper versions and I don’t need the cool artwork. I still love physical albums. I think the real question should be what was the last vinyl album you bought?
whats a CD?
There are only five bands/musicians who’s albums I’d buy and one of them only releases a new album every five years. I think the last CD(s) I bought were the Remastered Beatles
I kinda chuckle when I walk by a car with stacks of CDs in the seat or console. It’s like walking by an AMC Gremlin in 1998, and seeing stacks of 8-tracks in the car.
The last one I bought was an oldie and a goodie: AC/DC’s “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”.
And only because AC/DC doesn’t license its music for download.
I bought the new Weezer album when it came out last week. Before that, the last CD I bought in a store was the previous Weezer album. I also buy CDs from bands at concerts, but that’s about it. All our CDs are in a giant tub in our garage.
The only time I buy CDs is when I can’t find a torrent for what I want. I’d feel worse pirating music if like 99% of the profits of CD sales didn’t go straight into the RIAA’s pockets.
Um, whoever opened for Pat Benatar at Ravinia in 2005… the band members were signing CDs after their set, I needed a glass of wine… walking by their table, I decided why not. Otherwise, I’m all about MP3s. My husband is the sound quality guy, took him a while to stop buying CD’s – at one point, he was buying everything SACD. Glad that’s over; he got rid of the player, but we have a 1st gen PS3 so the option is there to play our collection *rolling eyes*
Hubby and I were laughing about cassette singles aka “cassingles” the other day, does anyone remember that little fad? Pay 25% of the album’s cost for 2 songs, what a money maker!
Plus, you get that nifty cardboard slipsleeve as a case.
I buy CDs, just not the crap that Best Buy carries.
Only CDs I’ve bought were the yearly Vans Warped Tour compilations because it’s usually about 50 songs for $5 or less. At least this move will get rid of all the unsold Chickenfoot and Guns ‘n Roses Chinese Democracy CDs.
As long as I can get it on sale I still buy CDs, on occassion. I like having liner notes and when you get bonus DVDs packed in.
That being said, the last CD I recall actually buying was a Patton Oswald one with a bonus DVD that I gave the wife as an Xmas gift last year.
Insane Clown Posse – The Calm (May 17th 2005)
iTunes receives all my money for music, TV shows and movies now.
Awesome overlooked cd at that.
Mine was the new Jimmy Eat World, and it was yesterday. This is sad.
Last cd I bought: The Letter Black, Hanging On By A Thread, about month ago from a local store NOT BB.
That’s true – liner notes are fun to read, especially from the creative types. The reason I first read “Interview with the Vampire” is because of Sting and his liner notes about “Moon Over Bourbon Street.”
I still buy cd’s occasionally just so I can listen to them in the car (no cd drive to burn cds from my little netbook if I were to download them)
I still buy CD’s from music stores now and again, but I don’t think I’ve ever bought one from Best Buy. All the ones in town either never had what I wanted, or might have what I wanted, but it couldn’t be found due to so many of them being misfiled.
Spectrum- War Sucks.
Small British imprint with a stateside distributor. It was the only way to get the new EP by one of my favorite bands. Not even on iTunes. Released late summer 2010.
i still buy a CD occasionally but mostly if it is as a gift for my wife (more fun to give her a physical object instead of a download code) or if I buy it used or directly from the artist.
99.9% of my music (and video) purchases are digital though.
I don’t know the last DVD I bought. I’ll never buy a DVD again.
I still buy CDs frequently but mostly at our local CD/album shop. I will buy from Best Buy occasionally becuase their new release prices are really excellent, but due to their political donations, I’ve been absent from their stores for the past 3 months or so.
Last CD I bought? “One Simple Word” by the Connells, just last week. At a church rummage sale for a buck.
I buy lots of CDs, but all of them secondhand. I could buy MP3s, but I’ve found if I’m patient, I can find pretty much anything I want. Then if I want high bitrate, it’s no problem.
If the CD area at the local Best Buy gets any smaller than it is now, it’ll cease to exist.
I still buy a few CDs (I have a couple thousand of them) … but I’ve probably bought more vinyl in the last two years than compact discs.
I still buy CDs for the same reasons many have mentioned – universal ease and better sound quality, etc. But another important factor to me is an album isn’t just a couple songs, it’s a creative work that also includes album art, CD cover, musician credits, etc. I like the whole experience, not just the music itself. I’m not too sad BB is getting rid of CDs though, they have always charged too much for too limited a selection. Amazon and CDBaby are the way to go for me.
I for one prefer physical media. I will accept all digital if it can be backed up.
and also for resell value, I can sell a CD, but just how do you sell a mp3 at a yard sale? You can’t.
I buy CDs. I will not buy Mp3s. I don’t consider buying an Mp3 to actually be owning anything. Although I tend lately to buy them direct from the artist. They may cost a little more, but more and more artists are offering extras (additional tracks, autographed copies, etc).
I bought a bounch up north and 3 today. All used though. If the price is near MP3 I get the CD. you get the linar notes and such. But if the costs is more tahn $2-$3 I get the digital download.
Since Best Buy was one of the reasons why the record industry sucks so bad (underpricing cds to the point that they wiped out local competition ala Walmart, then only selling crap cds because in the end they never really cared about music like the little guys) it’s funny that they couldn’t make it work after all this. Only took them 10 years or so to figure it out. Wonder how long it’ll take them to realize they are completely outdated and irrelevant?
I still buy CDs. I never listen to them though. Last one was The Dickies best of something or other.
I buy CDs on Amazon because they are often cheaper than the mp3 version. So for the same price, I have a physical copy of what I just spent $8 on. I don’t mind storing them somewhere.
I buy probably a dozen CDs every week, everything from The Ramones to Henry Rollins/Black Flag to Erasure. You simply cannot beat having the disc itself: if you want it on an mp3 player, you can make the mp3s yourself and get the best sound quality. Who on earth pays for an MP3? It’s not tangible. You can’t touch it. And when your harddrive crashes, it’s gone, and you have a 50/50 chance it’s still on the servers you bought it from. DRM is just too risky. At any given time, they can pull the rights. Nobody should have that kind of control. And besides, if the Internet Blacklist thing passes — http://demandprogress.org/blacklist/ — we’ll all be buying the real thing anyway.
I probably purchased about a dozen CDs this year.
David Duchovny, why won’t you love me?
Bought a bunch of Imports in the last two months. Most are soundtracks. I have over 10,000 in my collection. They sit next to my lps and old 45s. I don’t download.
Correction….people don’t buy over-priced cd’s from BestBuy. I go to Amazon. Yes…I still buy CD’s…I like hard copies.
I do believe the last new CD I bought was Sonic Youth: The Eternal, so that would be June of ’09. Used is another story. I have found some gems at Goodwill, and I get a lot of harder to find stuff on Amazon. I like having a hard copy since I collect friggin’ everything.
Hamnskifte, “Födzlepijnan” and Bird from the Abyss, “II.” neither one was available as a download, and the merchant includes lots of neat pack-ins as incentive for buying discs vs downloads (mini-posters, pretty packaging, etc)
Weird Al – Straight Outta Lynwood. 2006.
Yeah, I’m white n nerdy.