The CD is slowly dying as retailers like Best Buy and Target phase them out

“The beleaguered compact disc, made increasingly obsolete in the age of streaming, now has found itself in the bargain bin,” Kavita Kumar reports for The Star Tribune. “Richfield-based Best Buy, once one of the bigger music retailers with several aisles of CDs, now has a time capsule to another era jumbled up inside the $5.99 bargain bin. Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Who, Cat Stevens, Billy Ocean, Lionel Richie — all a nod to the aging demographics of those who still buy them. ‘Does anybody remember the last time they bought a CD?’ Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly asked rhetorically earlier this year in confirming the retailer is ‘de-emphasizing’ the category.”

“CDs have been in a freefall for more than a decade. In recent years, Best Buy’s collection had been reduced to a single row. Displays of iTunes gift cards can be found more easily and plentifully in its stores than CDs,” Kumar reports. “Target, too, is cutting back on its CD selection. The Minneapolis-based retailer still sells new releases, but in October 2016 it pulled back on the number of catalog, or previously released, CDs it carries from about 300 to 100.”

“The Electric Fetus, the venerable Minneapolis record store that is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, has been slowly but steadily shrinking the space for CDs in its stores over the years. But CDs still account for half of its music sales, tied with LPs, said Bob Fuchs, the shop’s music retail manager,” Kumar reports. “Some of those regulars own 1,000 to 2,000 CDs and like the quality of sound compared to streaming and other options. ‘They’ve been collecting for 20-plus years. They’re not changing formats again. A lot of people are like, ‘This is it. I’m going to ride this out for the next 20 years as long as they still make them.””

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: The few phystical CDs that iPod+iTunes Store couldn’t stamp out, iPhone+Apple Music will.