Best Buy to drop CDs this summer, Target may follow...

Best Buy will apparently begin phasing CDs out of their stores starting this Summer, and Target may follow suit if they can't get a better deal on them from the labels/distributors.

https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8097929/target-wants-to-stop-paying-labels-for-cds-it-doesnt-sell-best-buy-to-pull

I guess this was bound to happen eventually. Both chains' music selections have been crap-ola for years now.

Begin? The floor space given to CDs at my local BB is about 1/10th of what it once was.

I haven't been to a Best Buy looking for CDs since about the year 2000.

But I have to give the store this much: they're the reason I found KMFDM - one of my favorite industrial bands.  Back in the 90s when Best Buy used to actually feature new CDs on "listening posts" I wandered in there to browse and discovered KMFDM's "Nihil" album.  I think I now own at least a dozen KMFDM albums on CD plus several EPs and Greatest Hits collections.

Oh well... they never have anything I want anyway! What they do have caters to top 40, rap and trendy metal.

Online is the best choice for music nowadays, but I will also occasionally support a local mom and pop record store as well.

Not surprising. Their cd section at BB has been constantly dwindling down for the last few years.

Not surprising. And not even a big deal really. Their stock has been rather suspect for quite some time. The stock they do have is more catered to the crowd that doesn't purchase the physical format.

That sucks but not surprisingly, the section of my Best Buy is close to non existent. I do remember when Best Buy had a killer CD section, even carrying imports.

What I found interesting was the statement from Target : if they can't get a better deal on them from the labels/distributors.

These labels must be suicidal, here they claim to be hemorrhaging money and they still want to give places like Target shit deals, this is one of the few places where people buy CD's, especially country fans. Moronic.

It's not like most of us have actually bought the music we love at a Best Buy or a Target in over 10 years.

As long as Amazon is around, as long as eBay is around, as long as labels who cater to metal manufacture CDs, even in shorter runs, we'll all be OK.

This is only bad news if you give a shit about current, popular music.

^^^^ Totally agree

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

It's not like most of us have actually bought the music we love at a Best Buy or a Target in over 10 years.

As long as Amazon is around, as long as eBay is around, as long as labels who cater to metal manufacture CDs, even in shorter runs, we'll all be OK.

This is only bad news if you give a shit about current, popular music.

I actually still do use Best Buy as a heavy metal refuge for C.D's. I've been able to purchase the likes of Exodus, Overkill, Testament, Accept, etc there..

This just helps Amazon and eBay that much more...

The last thing i bought at Target was "Dystopia" because it came with code for a free vinyl version of it. The last thing I bought at Best Buy was Maiden's "Matter Of Life or Death" and that was because it came with a free DVD.

I still buy $5 CD's on occasion from Walmart. Most of the CD's I order now come from Roxx or Amazon.

I'm not surprised that either store is stopping. I've watched their selections dwindle significantly in the past couple of years.

I do occasionally pick up new releases at Best Buy. It's close to work and convenient for me to run out at lunch. As far as browsing, we'll that's a thing of the past.

And I frequently buy stuff from Best Buy on-line. I earn reward points and gift cards. That selection is much better and prices are quite reasonable, especially with new releases. I wonder if they'll do away with on-line cd sales as well?

Troublezone wrote:

Online is the best choice for music nowadays, but I will also occasionally support a local mom and pop record store as well.

Same here. It's still kind of sad that BB will stop selling them. I have a feeling that once these stores stop selling music, the online stores will all start to get very expensive. Which is the whole reason I stopped buying from stores like BestBuy and other retailers. Why pay 18 dollars for a cd, plus tax, when I can order one from amazon for 10?

I do love going to small privately owned stores and buying music the old fashioned way though. I can spend hours in the right store drooling over their stuff.

I do remember fondly Rocket Records.
A small store about 15 miles away from my house.
Coolest place ever. Even had bootleg VHS tapes of concerts.
( before Youtube)
That's where I went for all my metal. Those places are way gone now.
E bay still charges a touch too much, in my metal opinion.
I thought CD's were going to be phased out.
New cars sold with no CD players.
Ha ! Cant even buy a CD radio player anymore.
Yet sellers on Ebay still charge a pretty penny.
Worth it !
My latest, perhaps, to buy is a band called TORCH
their " Electikiss " cd - 20 bucks....not sure....
and some of these CD's are from Russia - wtf -

I live in a city in Texas  that has 2 major universities... a local Fox channel did a poll and 30% said they still buy physical product and 70%  said that they do downloads only for movies and music...sooooo...

Quote :

New cars sold with no CD players.

I recently had to get a new vehicle, well it's not "new" but it's new to me, haha (it's a 2013) and geez, I was SO happy that the damn thing still had a CD player in it...

Quote :

some of these CD's are from Russia - wtf -

Don't knock the Russian bootleggers. The way things are going, soon they'll be the only ones pressing actual CDs

Quote :

downloads only for movies and music...

DVDs and Blu-Rays will be the next thing to go. Why spend $20 and change for a Blu-Ray of a movie you're only going to watch once or twice, when you can stream it on Netflix or Hulu as many times as you want for $10 a month?

Fat Freddy wrote:

Quote :

New cars sold with no CD players.

I recently had to get a new vehicle, well it's not "new" but it's new to me, haha (it's a 2013) and geez, I was SO happy that the damn thing still had a CD player in it...

My parents bought a brand new 2017 VW Beetle last summer and it came with a cd player. I bought a brand new 2017 Hyndai Elantra in 2016 and it did NOT come with a cd player.

I'm sure they'll all do away with them at some point, but you can still get a cd player as standard equipment if you look around.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Quote :

New cars sold with no CD players.

I recently had to get a new vehicle, well it's not "new" but it's new to me, haha (it's a 2013) and geez, I was SO happy that the damn thing still had a CD player in it...

My parents bought a brand new 2017 VW Beetle last summer and it came with a cd player. I bought a brand new 2017 Hyndai Elantra in 2016 and it did NOT come with a cd player.

I'm sure they'll all do away with them at some point, but you can still get a cd player as standard equipment if you look around.

Yep, our Beetle and Passat both have CD players. At first I thought the Passat didn't because the opening is razor thin.

Maybe it's just VW putting cd players in their vehicles still ?

007 wrote:

Maybe it's just VW putting cd players in their vehicles still ?

Could be. When I was in the market for a new vehicle, I saw on-line that the 2016 Elantra's did come with a cd player. However when I went to my local dealership, the 2016's were sold out and they only had new '17s in stock. So maybe 2016 was the last year for cd players in Hyundai vehicles?

We'll have to buy aftermarket CD players for our new cars. They're not gonna force me to give up CDs that easily!

There was absolutely no option for a CD player in my 2017 Civic. I was willing to pay extra and was told it's just not offered.

mikeinfla wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Quote :

New cars sold with no CD players.

I recently had to get a new vehicle, well it's not "new" but it's new to me, haha (it's a 2013) and geez, I was SO happy that the damn thing still had a CD player in it...

My parents bought a brand new 2017 VW Beetle last summer and it came with a cd player. I bought a brand new 2017 Hyndai Elantra in 2016 and it did NOT come with a cd player.

I'm sure they'll all do away with them at some point, but you can still get a cd player as standard equipment if you look around.

Yep, our Beetle and Passat both have CD players. At first I thought the Passat didn't because the opening is razor thin.

The same here. I bought a 2017 Toyota Tacoma and didn't realize it had a CD player for awhile.