Best Buy to Stop Selling CDs in 2018
It's no surprise that sales of CDs are down but in a few months, Best Buy will stop selling CDs completely.
According to a report from Billboard, the company has told music suppliers that it will stop selling CDs in its stores on July 1. Once the most powerful music merchandiser in the U.S., Best Buy's CD sales are now down, reportedly only generating about $40 million a year.
While CDs will no longer be sold at the store, Best Buy will still continue to carry vinyl for the next two years thanks to a commitment made to vendors. Sources say records in the stores will now be merchandised with turntables.
As for Target, the company will continue to sell CDs but wants to make a change to its payment structure for both CDs and DVDs. The store currently agrees to pay for any goods shipped within 60 days and most pay to send back unsold CDs for credit.
Now, the store would like to switch to a scan-based system, where the store pays for CDs and DVDs after they are sold or scanned at the register. Target originally set a target date for Feb. 1 but has now moved the deadline to either April 1 or May 1.
With CD sales down 18.5 percent last year, could this be the end of CDs as we know it?