With digital sales and streaming eclipsing the sale of physical media, Best Buy has announced they will start pulling CDs from stores this July. Billboard reports CD sales only amount to about $40 million annually throughout the entire company, a paltry sum compared to what the chain used to make. Despite this move, Best Buy will continue to sell vinyl.
Best Buy isn’t the only retailer looking to change their CD market, as Target is also looking to begin steps to reorganize their sale structure for music as well as Blu-ray and DVDs. Currently, Target agrees to pay for any goods they’re shipped within 60 days, and they have to spend money to ship back unsold CDs.
Now, Target is trying to pass the risk to labels by changing their operations to scanned-based trading. This way, Target would only have to pay for items that have actually sold. Sources close to Billboard say that one major label is unlikely to agree to those terms, while two others are undecided.