Beech Tree News Network

The last few times I’ve been to Best Buy, I’ve noticed that the number of CD’s for sale is drastically shrinking.  Earlier this week came the announcement that I knew was inevitable, still it’s crazy to think of: Best Buy will soon stop selling CD’s in all stores this July.  Target could be next. 

Compact Disc was developed by Phillips and Sony and was released in 1982.  The format was originally developed to store and play only sound recordings but was later adapted for storage of data(CD-ROM).  However, CD’s wouldn’t overtake cassette tapes until the late 1980’s.  The first album to sell 1 million copies in CD format and outsell its vinyl version was Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms, released in 1985.  The first CD made in the United States for commercial release was Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 album Born In The U.S.A.  But it wasn’t the first commercially available CD ever.  That title belongs to Billy Joel’s 52^nd Street, which was released on CD in Japan in 1982.

After the commercial release in ’82, compact discs and their players were extremely popular.  Despite costing up to $1,000, over 400,000 CD players were sold in the United States between 183 and 1984.  Portable CD players were first introduced in the mid 1980’s but weren’t popular until the 1990’s when anti-skip technology was introduced.  Sony’s first portable CD player, the Discman D-50, was introduced in November 1994. 

Sony introduced the first CD audio player to market on October 1, 1982 at $900.  Compact discs themselves, in their infancy, were extremely expensive at $30 each.  CDs were manufactured at only two facilities in thee world-owned by Phillips and Sony. 

Best Buy will stop selling CD’s on July 1 of this year.  RIAA, the music industry’s U.S trade group, reports that streaming music services accounted for 62% of the total market for the first half of 2017.  Physical sales, which are comprised of both CDs and vinyl albums, made up 16% of the overall revenues.  Best Buy will continue to sell vinyl.

According to Billboard reports, CD sales were down 18.5% last year.  The company was only generating $40 million annually in CD sales, a sharp decline from a once billion dollar profit for Best Buy.  Incorporated in 1966, Best Buy was there for the beginning of the compact disc.  Looks like it’ll be there for the end as well.