Recently, Best Buy made a big announcement—it will no longer sell CDs.
So, for all three of you out there still buying CDs at Best Buy, you’ll have to shop somewhere else.
Okay, so that’s not really fair. Obviously, there are still people out there who listen to CDs…hell, the fact that Best Buy is only just now making this announcement is evidence of that someone out there has been buying them this entire time. The company has informed its suppliers that it no longer sees selling music as a priority, as it only brings in a small fraction of the company’s annual revenue.
While this move obviously won’t hit Best Buy too hard, it will be a fairly large blow for already declining CD sales. I don’t think it comes as a surprise to anyone to learn that sales have been down for CDs, including an 18.5% decline last year, with 2015 being the year digital sales outpaced CD sales. Heck, 2017 marked the year that streaming services surpassed digital music sales for the first time. So, getting rid of CDs in stores? Not exactly the most unpredictable move.
Best Buy isn’t the only store making changes to how they sell music—Target has also recently told suppliers that they’ll be scaling back their CD section, saying they will only continue to sell them on consignment. Under their current system, Target pays to ship unsold music back to the suppliers, and then receives credit—the company’s new goal is to only pay suppliers once the CDs have been purchased. In the future, they may also take on this plan for DVDs as well.
As for Best Buy, it’s music selection will live on in vinyl next to record players for at least two more years, as that’s the deal they have with vendors. Beyond that? Well, we’ll just have to wait and see what stores to next.
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