Saturday Deluxe / 10 February 2018

Best Buy ditch CDs

Bad news for our friend and humble servant, the CD. Best Buy in America has announced that it will stop selling them from July this year.

The retailer used to be a dominant force in music retail in the US, but the breadth of their range has been declining for a long time. Like Walmart and Target, they would sometimes do ‘exclusive’ versions of albums –  a good example being Duran Duran‘s 2011 physical version of All You Need Is Now which featured a couple of exclusive bonus tracks. The chain will still sell vinyl for a least a couple of years, but these will be sold next to turntables, similar to Urban Outfitters. Target themselves, while not abandoning the CD, have told their suppliers they will only continue to take them on a ‘consignment’ basis, which means they don’t take the hit for unsold inventory.

Quincy Jones

The must read interview this week – apart from my own with Roxy Music‘s Andy Mackay – is David Marchese’s conversation with Quincy Jones over at Vulture.com. It’s rather astonishing, with Jones not holding back on his opinions: Michael Jackson was “greedy” and “stole a lot of stuff” (i.e. songs), The Beatles were “the worst musicians in the world” and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen sings and plays like Hendrix. Apparently.

Head over to Vulture.com and prepare to be astonished.

SDE ChartWatch

Simple Minds enter the UK album chart at number four with Walk Between Worlds. Great result for the band who score their highest charting album since Good News From The Next World peaked at number two back in 1995. I’d love to know how many fans bought multiple copies via the official store.

Also, despite the complaints over the cost price, Universal may feel vindicated when they saw the reissue of Roxy Music‘s debut enter the chart at number 48. Apparently it sold a little more than 2000 units, which on the face of it sounds quite modest, but if we assume those figures are largely made up of the super deluxe edition, then that equates to close to a quarter of a million pounds in retail value sold by the end of week one.

Wedding anniversary

Duran Duran‘s The Wedding Album is 25 years old! Check back to SDE tomorrow for an in-depth feature: Remembering The Wedding Album which examines the success of the record and puts it into some context within the band’s career.