RIP, CD: Best Buy to Cut CDs, DVDs....

[The_Iceflash]

How many people will be buying CDs 10 years from now?

At least one, but I can't speak for anyone else but myself!

I think there'll always be a physical format and people who want it. Just like with movies.

[my chicken is infected]

I have an iPod and I still buy CD's, albeit most of mine are purchased used these days. In some cases I can still get a CD, even ones from retail like Wal Mart, cheaper than the digital download versions. I prefer to have something tangible, if possible.

Digital downloading has its upsides too. Albums that would never be economically feasible to keep in print can still be released to digital download services, as Disney has done with their many releases from the Walt Disney Records vaults to iTunes. (I just wish they'd release all of them to Amazon as well. Some of them have been made available on Amazon's MP3 site, but a great many are still iTunes only.)

[Flanger-Hanger]

At least one, but I can't speak for anyone else but myself!

Actually, you can't as you have no ability to see into the future. 10 years ago Laserdics and VHS tapes were still begin sold and Blu-ray and ipods didn't exist. With technology changing at such a rapid rate it would be foolish to assume the current offerings will stay exactly the same. Maybe CDs or some other form of hard copy release of titles will exist but there is evidence that the industry is having trouble supporting such things.

Movies are different as people do not have the hardrives to store full 1080p quality movies (at least not too many, let alone bonus content) and do recognize the difference between 720p and 1080p picture for example. Perhaps storage systems will improve, but home theater experiences would likely still be the premium way for consumers to enjoy home video because we love our big screens.

[David S.]

At least one, but I can't speak for anyone else but myself!

Actually, you can't as you have no ability to see into the future. 10 years ago Laserdics and VHS tapes were still begin sold and Blu-ray and ipods didn't exist. With technology changing at such a rapid rate it would be foolish to assume the current offerings will stay exactly the same. Maybe CDs or some other form of hard copy release of titles will exist but there is evidence that the industry is having trouble supporting such things.

Movies are different as people do not have the hardrives to store full 1080p quality movies (at least not too many, let alone bonus content) and do recognize the difference between 720p and 1080p picture for example. Perhaps storage systems will improve, but home theater experiences would likely still be the premium way for consumers to enjoy home video because we love our big screens.

I misunderstood your question. I thought you meant who would choose to still buy CDs in 10 years if they were still available, given the trend of more people not buying them. Naturally, if they stop being made, I won't have a choice in the matter for new releases, although I'll always have the ability to track down used copies of CDs that already exists, and will choose that option in all cases over downloads!

As far as movies go, I am fiercely loyal to DVD, and some may mistake that as being "anti-BD". But that is only true with regards to the frustration of seeing bonus features that could fit on the DVD being left off and made "BD exclusive" to make the BD more marketable.

IF and when DVDs are no longer being produced and BD takes over as the sole surviving physical format (like DVD did to VHS), I would choose BD over a download option to stick with a physical, packaged, format. You read it here first!

I know one thing, if I was a BD supporter now, I would be PI***D that the classic bonus features on Fantasia are being left off the discs, and only available through BD live. A tech-savvy friend of mine told me that you can only download these to your player, and you need something called a "memory card" to get them from your player to a computer, so you could then copy them to a physical disc.* This sounds very complicated to me and I am admittedly completely clueless how to do these type of things. I wish they would just put things on a pre-made disc and I could buy them that way, without having to be a computer genious to get them on a disc myself! I am admitedly one of the most tech-unsavvy people I know, and I am not ashamed of it, either!

(* He also told me BD-live was a hassle and made the discs take a lot longer to load)

That's one thing that the whole download-music movement is doing, if it takes over completely, is it could ultimately restrict access to music to people who own computers and know how to use them to download files and transfer them to a disc.

I once went into an Apple store and asked if I could buy some of the Disney i-tunes-only classic Walt Disney Records releases directly from them, and pay them the asking price plus extra to have them copy them onto a CD-R for me, and sadly, they said they didn't offer that service.

So Disney is not reaching all of their target market with these releases (older fans like me who would already own nearly everything in their classic i-tunes line if it was available on a physical CD), yet a lot of the tech-savvy younger generation who are experts at this may not have as much of an interest in these titles as a lot of older people and/or non-techies who either don't even know they are available as downloads, don't own the equipment to buy these titles, etc!

[bmadigan2000]

I almost never shop for music or DVDs at Best Buy because a) their prices are too high and b) their selection sucks.

I can find almost anything I want for a better price at amazon.

[The_Iceflash]

I'd like to say that the changeover rate with music mediums aren't the same as movie formats seem to. Look how many years vinyl records have been around. As far as I know, Best Buy stores are still keeping their newly added vinyl record sections. It's already been over 25 years since CDs first hit the market. Music formats don't change the same way movie formats do. It's not like there's a new physical music medium being introduced right now like BD is in terms of movies. SACD and HDCD both failed to take over CDs. Cassettes never took over records. 8-tracks to Reel-to-Reels never took over records. CDs did take over records and is considered it's successor but even vinyl is still around and making somewhat of a reassurance. We can't say CDs will go out the way of the VHS because the markets are different and there's not a physical format being pushed as a replacement. I don't see music downloads ever being the sole way to get music. I really don't. Same for movie downloads.

[slave2moonlight]

Sucks, especially if it's the old stuff that they get rid of. I'm a major Best Buy shopper when I have money (though I'm looking for work right now). I know enough to check prices at Wal-Mart first, but I don't have a credit card and don't want one, so online shopping is a very limited option for me. I rely on Best Buy having older stuff, both in CD and DVD form, when I finally have the money to get it. Often, they don't have it and I have to turn to Ebay and Paypal, but I prefer to be able to just drive across the street and pick something up when I decide I want it and can afford it. And, yes, they just opened a Best Buy virtually across the street from me. I have also noticed what they've done to their horror section, as Laz mentioned, and their Disney section is hurting now too, but as far as real stores, Best Buy still has the best selection of anything around me, especially considering the prices. While they may not compare well to Best Buy on some titles, they are a lot better than, say, Barnes and Noble. Anyway, I'm not into pure digital media myself, as in no hard copies, and I don't think I ever will be. I'm very happy with where we're at now, with CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Rays. I don't mind dropping DVDs for Blu IF and WHEN everything on DVD is on BLu and the prices are comparable. At the moment though, particularly because of the older stuff, Best Buy still has a lot of titles I want on all three formats, and they've always been the best place I know of in terms of having good prices (their weekly prices at the very least) AND a larger selection than anyone else since Circuit City disappeared. The prices can be ridiculous at times, yeah, I've been trying to find Robin Hood, the Aristocats, and a few others for a while at less than 19.99, but I've never found them cheaper anywhere. And, yeah, sometimes TV show sets turn up really cheap at Wal-Mart and other places, but they'll still be 50 bucks at Best Buy, and that does suck, but I also have doubled my Disney live-action collection thanks to Best Buy's 6.99 sales over the past year or two, and I almost always find some great deal in their weekly ad or monthly in-store sales. The CD selection has been suffering for a while now though. I have noticed it getting smaller and smaller over the past couple of years, and it can be pretty hard to find older stuff there already.

[Disney's Divinity]

However, the simple fact is, alot less people are buying CDs and the trend is not going to change anytime soon if at all. At this point in time, the industry can still pull in billions, but if sales are dropping so quickly what will be the point in supporting their production? How many people will be buying CDs 10 years from now?

From the quote you gave, everything music-related has dropped in sales. Is this supposed to reflect that people like CDs less or that they overall have less money to waste on any luxury items?

To me, if they go solely digital, they'll get even less money. If I'm going to download, it most likely won't be for money (I don't even know how you do download without a credit card--or a debit card where you have to risk personal bank information on a viral internet, which therefore requires that you buy the newest version of viral and spyware protection again and again every single year of your sad and pathetic life). And the only artists I'm going to go through that much effort to get the songs of, I would want the whole CD and not just "one or two songs."

I don't know, technology these days seems to be geared mostly to the well-off. People who are too poor to update their stereos/movie-players/computers/etc. every year--because they have more important things to deal with, like gas, school, food, health, bills, life...?--are not going to be able to keep up with this age where there's a new format for music and every other form of media every half a year. And, yes, that pisses me off. Movies aren't like cars--me having a DVD player is not destroying the ozone layer, so why are companies attempting to force people to change so desperately?

And you know? Even if I did have the money, I wouldn't want to walk around with a chord jammed into my ear. That couldn't possibly be helping an increase in hearing loss among the young (though I guess it'll help with the inevitable transition to hearing aids).

[Flanger-Hanger]

From the quote you gave, everything music-related has dropped in sales. Is this supposed to reflect that people like CDs less or that they overall have less money to waste on any luxury items?

Maybe not less money to "waste" but more inclined not to pay at all for music?

(I don't even know how you do download without a credit card--or a debit card where you have to risk personal bank information on a viral internet, which therefore requires that you buy the newest version of viral and spyware protection again and again every single year of your sad and pathetic life).

itunes cards. They're tax free and involve no credit card related risks. I've always used them to purchase from their store and have never had any problems.

so why are companies attempting to force people to change so desperately?

Because a) they've invested in it and b) people will pay for it. Maybe not you, but others are and as long as they do, companies will never stop. It's true for all forms of consumerism.

[PeterPanfan]

I never really went to Best Buy all that much, but I really like it there. =[

[Barbossa]

Well that sucks. And here I was thinking "Oh boy, we're getting a new Best Buy next year! More selection!" They finally started building a Best Buy here and I was looking forward to shopping there because Future Shop has significantly decreased their selection about two (maybe 3 years ago). For those that don't know, Future Shop is a Canadian store (headquartered in Burnaby), but, they are actually owned by Best Buy now.

I really don't like this Blu-Ray push, at least not now when the economy still hasn't been fixed and is a long way from being fixed. I'm still struggling in my career search and haven't bought any Blu-Ray equipment. I watch movies on my laptop; all it is equipped with is a DVD player/burner.

Bad move Best Buy.

[Mushu2083]

Meh, the only thing I really buy at Best Buy is video games. I think I've bought maybe one CD and one DVD at Best Buy.

[bmadigan2000]

My primary DVD buying of late has been Doctor Who DVD sets and Best Buy is usually close to list price on those.

[dvdjunkie]

bmadigan2000 wrote:

I can find almost anything I want for a better price at amazon.

As much as I want to save a dollar or two here and there, I have to physically see and touch the product before buying it, so I never shop on line. That is just me, plus I will never give my credit card number on line after the hassle I had a few years ago with it being hacked. Took me almost three years to get my credit re-established.

For now, I just go to CD Tradepost and put what titles I am looking for on my Wishlist, and within days I have it in my hands and at better than half the price of new - example: Killers -Blu-ray sold at Best Buy for $19.99, I got it three days after release for $11.99. Beauty and the Beast - Blu-ray Combo pack, which comes out in a few weeks will be around $25.99 at Best Buy, CD Tradepost will have it for $15.99.

Check them out.......they do overnight mailorder and have a great selection of Used Games, CD's, DVD's, and Blu-rays along with Game Systems and Accessories:

www.cdtradepost.com

[milojthatch]

bmadigan2000 wrote:

I can find almost anything I want for a better price at amazon.

As much as I want to save a dollar or two here and there, I have to physically see and touch the product before buying it, so I never shop on line. That is just me, plus I will never give my credit card number on line after the hassle I had a few years ago with it being hacked. Took me almost three years to get my credit re-established.

For now, I just go to CD Tradepost and put what titles I am looking for on my Wishlist, and within days I have it in my hands and at better than half the price of new - example: Killers -Blu-ray sold at Best Buy for $19.99, I got it three days after release for $11.99. Beauty and the Beast - Blu-ray Combo pack, which comes out in a few weeks will be around $25.99 at Best Buy, CD Tradepost will have it for $15.99.

Check them out.......they do overnight mailorder and have a great selection of Used Games, CD's, DVD's, and Blu-rays along with Game Systems and Accessories:

www.cdtradepost.com

Great find, thanks for sharing that. Another great link is secondspin.com They are a small second hand dealer based mostly in Southern California with a few physical stores and a lot of online business. I find that sometimes they do have good deals.

Well that sucks. And here I was thinking "Oh boy, we're getting a new Best Buy next year! More selection!" They finally started building a Best Buy here and I was looking forward to shopping there because Future Shop has significantly decreased their selection about two (maybe 3 years ago). For those that don't know, Future Shop is a Canadian store (headquartered in Burnaby), but, they are actually owned by Best Buy now.

I really don't like this Blu-Ray push, at least not now when the economy still hasn't been fixed and is a long way from being fixed. I'm still struggling in my career search and haven't bought any Blu-Ray equipment. I watch movies on my laptop; all it is equipped with is a DVD player/burner.

Bad move Best Buy.

Amen. I keep saying this in my rants about DVD vs. Blu Ray, but fact is, the economy didn't suck when DVD came out and was making the push to replace VHS. A fact it seems most Blu Ray fans boys, manufactures and stores don't seem to get. I wonder how much more money would they be making if they just left Blu Ray alone for now, got what they could get out of DVD and then in a few years, then try to naturally replace DVD with Blu Ray instead of this force crap they seem to be doing. Between stuff like that and the nuts price of movies at the theater, Hollywood is doing a great job of digging tehir own grave. Because of new technology, people are starting to find that home video's from total strangers are more entertaining on places like You Tube for free or next to it, then high prices for professionally done films from Hollywood. Oh the tangled web we weave, huh?

Actually, you can't as you have no ability to see into the future. 10 years ago Laserdics and VHS tapes were still begin sold and Blu-ray and ipods didn't exist. With technology changing at such a rapid rate it would be foolish to assume the current offerings will stay exactly the same. Maybe CDs or some other form of hard copy release of titles will exist but there is evidence that the industry is having trouble supporting such things.

Movies are different as people do not have the hardrives to store full 1080p quality movies (at least not too many, let alone bonus content) and do recognize the difference between 720p and 1080p picture for example. Perhaps storage systems will improve, but home theater experiences would likely still be the premium way for consumers to enjoy home video because we love our big screens.

I misunderstood your question. I thought you meant who would choose to still buy CDs in 10 years if they were still available, given the trend of more people not buying them. Naturally, if they stop being made, I won't have a choice in the matter for new releases, although I'll always have the ability to track down used copies of CDs that already exists, and will choose that option in all cases over downloads!

As far as movies go, I am fiercely loyal to DVD, and some may mistake that as being "anti-BD". But that is only true with regards to the frustration of seeing bonus features that could fit on the DVD being left off and made "BD exclusive" to make the BD more marketable.

IF and when DVDs are no longer being produced and BD takes over as the sole surviving physical format (like DVD did to VHS), I would choose BD over a download option to stick with a physical, packaged, format. You read it here first!

I know one thing, if I was a BD supporter now, I would be PI***D that the classic bonus features on Fantasia are being left off the discs, and only available through BD live. A tech-savvy friend of mine told me that you can only download these to your player, and you need something called a "memory card" to get them from your player to a computer, so you could then copy them to a physical disc.* This sounds very complicated to me and I am admittedly completely clueless how to do these type of things. I wish they would just put things on a pre-made disc and I could buy them that way, without having to be a computer genious to get them on a disc myself! I am admitedly one of the most tech-unsavvy people I know, and I am not ashamed of it, either!

(* He also told me BD-live was a hassle and made the discs take a lot longer to load)

That's one thing that the whole download-music movement is doing, if it takes over completely, is it could ultimately restrict access to music to people who own computers and know how to use them to download files and transfer them to a disc.

I once went into an Apple store and asked if I could buy some of the Disney i-tunes-only classic Walt Disney Records releases directly from them, and pay them the asking price plus extra to have them copy them onto a CD-R for me, and sadly, they said they didn't offer that service.

So Disney is not reaching all of their target market with these releases (older fans like me who would already own nearly everything in their classic i-tunes line if it was available on a physical CD), yet a lot of the tech-savvy younger generation who are experts at this may not have as much of an interest in these titles as a lot of older people and/or non-techies who either don't even know they are available as downloads, don't own the equipment to buy these titles, etc!

AMEN again! I 100% agree. See, one of my arguments in dealing with Hollywood or the music industry, is that they are a big business that sometimes is an art house, but seems to hide behind the latter more then they should. They claim that they make art, but I say BS. So far as music goes, full albums constitutes "art." There was a time when the artist would try to convey a message or bit of expression thought the whole album. Every song, both the radio tunes and the secondary tracks, were equally important in that task.

But now we have iTunes and MP3's, and things like that, where people now care less about complete albums in favor of just selected chart toppers. It destroys completely the whole art form.

Further, it makes it pricier often to get a new album vie single tracks instead of whole albums.

Lastly, and why I personally prefer physical media over digital is simple, physical is better protected. Better chance your hard drive crashes, thus loosing all your MP3's, then your physical CD collection were to get damaged. There is also something about physically holding something tangible that is very human. Digital media could never replace that part of us.

I too, save for very specific films, have stuck mostly with DVD. So long as a film is on DVD, I'll but the DVD. The only things I but on Blu Ray right now is all Disney animated film from "Chicken Little" on and all Pixar films from 'Cars" on, plus nature films. Save for that, I'm DVD all the way and will be till they stop making them, which I bet will not be much longer with the current "force" mentality all those behind Blu Ray seem to share.

I was once VERY faithful to Best Buy. I think I've grown up though and realized that loyalty to nay company, especially these days, is mis-guided. I shop where ever the best deals are and where they have what I want and treat me good and not like I'm about to rob the place or something. Being as I've worked enough retail, I know the behind the scenes and really don't like going into physical stores anymore, save for maybe small business. I'm very much warming up more and more to online shopping.