Number's just about up for CDs: retailer
By Christine Sams
SMH February 19, 2006
THREE of Australia's leading music stores will shift away from CDs towards digital retailing, in plans forged by Australia's most powerful music retailing boss.
Brett Blundy, the director of Brazin - the company that runs HMV, Sanity and Virgin record stores in Australia - has indicated digital technology unveiled for his Sanity stores will eventually be available in all his other major retail chains.
"That's the plan," said Mr Blundy. "It's very exciting."
The reclusive retail boss, who rarely speaks about his domination of the music industry, appeared at a Sanity launch last week to unveil the company's new Fast Tracks Kiosks, which allow customers to buy single tracks for download on either CDs or MP3 players.
It's the first time music customers will be able to select and download individual tracks and choose the format on which they buy it. Some customers may choose to make a compilation CD, others can plug their MP3 players into the machine and download songs directly, removing the need to use a home computer.
Fast Tracks Kiosks - which contain about 100,000 tracks for download per machine - will also be introduced in all of Brazin's regional stores.
"We've basically said that wherever there's a Sanity, HMV or Virgin store we'll have at least four machines in them - the smaller stores may have two - but that's within the next 12 months," said Greg Milne, CEO of Brazin.
As part of its digital revolution, Sanity will also sell mobile phone ring tones over the counter, making it the first "bricks and mortar" store in the world to do so. The service is also likely to be expanded to HMV and Virgin stores.
Mr Milne said while the CD was not dead yet, customer awareness of digital music is growing, and in a few years the CD may be almost irrelevant.
"As customers start to update their hardware, when they don't have a CD player in their home, and want everything on a memory stick or in digitised format, we'll be able to accommodate that," he said. "It's really a transitional thing at the moment."
Mr Milne acknowledged that many music fans might not be aware Brazin operates so-called "rival" record stores including HMV, Virgin and Sanity. "We own them all," said Mr Milne. "If we didn't think it was a good idea, we wouldn't have done it."
But he said many music fans would benefit from the retail shift towards new technologies.
CV of the CD
Introduced in 1984, compact discs boosted an industry that was considered to be static.
By 1994 CDs were easily out-selling vinyl albums: 25 million CD sales in Australia compared with 28,000 albums.
By 2004 Australian CD sales totalled 48 million.
The introduction of the Apple iPod in 2004 allowed downloading of music from the internet and CDs on to a portable MP3 player. CD prices were reduced in an attempt to keep customers buying music from record stores.
In the first half of 2005, music sales declined 7 per cent as MP3 players took hold.