Thursday, March 28, 2024

Surprise! Best Buy Lied to Us Last May, They Have Stopped Selling CDs in Stores, Online

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I don’t know why I’m surprised by this. Last May I called Best Buy’s PR department and asked them if the company was going to stop selling CDs.

A spokesman sent me this statement: “The way people buy and listen to music has dramatically changed and, as a result, we are reducing the amount of space devoted to CDs in our stores. However, we will still offer select CDs, vinyl and digital music options at all stores.”

Hello, he lied! (Tip of the hat to Lynda Obst.) I walked through Best Buy last night on 23rd St. and Sixth Avenue. The CD’s are gone. Are you selling CDs, I  asked a clerk? Answer: “Whatever’s left in the discount tubs.” There are no more shelves of CDs. It’s over.

On the Best Buy website, CDs are non existent. Gone, baby, gone.

Target is still selling the silver disks on line. But WalMart is almost done with them. There’s very little left on the WalMart site. If you want CDs, you’re down to a smattering of physical retailers, like FYE in your mall, if you have a mall. Other than that it’s amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Think of this: you cannot walk into Best Buy and purchase a Beatles CD. Or Rolling Stones, Dylan, Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers, Frank Sinatra. (You can buy a coffee maker.)

I’m actually amazed that hi end audio companies, like Cambridge Audio, Denon, Marantz, and Creek are still selling CD players. Who’s buying them if there are no CDs? Now I really have to keep my Creek player in good shape. There will be few ways to replace it in the future.

Of course, the new music is so bad, and the so called music is so poorly produced and engineered, why buy a CD or a player anyway? Of Kanye West? The Carters? Drake? Most new releases aren’t even being produced on CD, they’re just “dropped” digitally onto streaming services or onto iTunes and amazon for downloading.

The compact disk, RIP 1982-2018. That was fast, man. I look at all boxed sets, Miles Davis, the Beatles, Sam Cooke, Aretha. They are relics. When the 50th anniversary of the “White Album” is released, it will be via blockchain or telekinesis or through vents in the air conditioning. Good lord.

Oh yeah, so Best Buy lied. I mean, so what? Look at the White House. All bets are off in the truth department.

 

 

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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