CD Wherehouse brand gets binned
Posted on 26. Oct, 2006 by Jonathan Cherry in Totally Whack
As far as real world music retail goes – we really used to like CD Wherehouse.
The Waterfront store was always full of of geezers that called each other ‘Dad’ and ‘Cat’…and some of the customers were fairly laid back too.
But now, CD Wherehouse have been swallowed up by the Musica monster, who plan to ignite their own special brand of music appreciation in the existing locations by launching Musica Megastores.
But here’s the real prize inside. If you carefully read the statements posted on the CD Wherehouse website – clearly the two parties have been talking past each other with regard to the strategy going forward.
The CD Wherehouse statement indicates great new developments online, while the Musica corporate banter says nothing about any e-commerce venture and seems to have been written sometime in the early 90′s.
A Musica Megastore? Doesn’t Musica employ the services of a trend tracker – or someone who at least reads a local blog or too now and again?
Tower records in the US is dead, Look and Listen have halved the size of stores, people are sharing music like playing cards and they think physical megastores are the way forward?
We don’t understand?
See:
CD Wherehouse online statement
Goodbye, CD Wherehouse; hello, Musica Megastore
– Mail & Guardian
Previously:
Its only a matter of time – Cherryflava
Undersound: Music sharing goes underground – Cherryflava
6 Responses to “CD Wherehouse brand gets binned”
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Marc Forrest
26. Oct, 2006
Have to agree, anyone opening a music store these days, is looking for a way to loose money. Digital downloads are they way to go.
ahhh, where oh where is our itunes store
tripeak
26. Oct, 2006
I agree with Mark – when (eventually) iTunes decide to open their virtual doors in SA… im sure the music retail industry will surely be affected. Anyone used picknplay.co.za recently?
Cherryflava
26. Oct, 2006
iTunes is AWOL for the near future.
SA obviously too small and insignificant for them. Pick ‘n Play is another of those badly designed unfriendly file type things that’s not for us.
Musica sells iPods, but their online store doesn’t allow for music that can play on an iPod. Go figure…
http://www.last.fm/ or see the boys from http://www.themuso.co.za
Darren
26. Oct, 2006
You need only look at the TV adverts for Look & Listen to see how badly local retailers just don’t get it. At a time when music is moving towards a more personal, individualised experience L&L and Musica are still punting the tired old lowest-common denominator mass-marketing they’ve always done.
They’re going to fail. Their unreasonable prices, supermarket shopping style and sheer arrogance makes this sadly inevitable. Of course, they (and the record companies) will take the opportunity to blame illegal downloads, trying to justify ever more authoritarian legal measures against ordinary citizens as opposed to doing the unthinkable and actually changing their business model to adopt to a changing world.
Apple’s music store is a success precisely because they figured out something that the record companies were too blind to see: People are willing to pay for songs that are reasonably-priced, easily downloaded, of guaranteed quality and not overly-encumbered by clumsy DRM. In other words, give people a positive incentive to download by offering them good quality songs for a good price rather than trying to hit them on the head with negative incentives like mass litigations.
We still haven’t figured that out in South Africa. The online music stores that do exist feature overpriced songs, a clumsy download process and DRM-encumbered WMA files that aren’t compatible with the iPods most music enthusiasts have. Is anybody really surprised at their lack of success?
The market’s ripe for the entry of a South African ITMS, but as you said it’s AWOL for the near future. Nobody seems to know the reason for this, but I’ve been hearing a lot of talk that the local record companies are demanding a price-per-song from Apple that would result in overpriced songs and wipe out Apple’s profit margin, making it unfeasible to open up here. If true, it’s just more of the same kind of idiocy we’re used to from those companies.
Cherryflava
26. Oct, 2006
…and that’s exactly why the illegal downloading activity will get worse in this country.
As you say Darren – by the time these guys realise their own stupidity – the game will be lost. Such a pity they don’t read this and invite us all to help.
The Don
27. Oct, 2006
If it speeds up their already rapid decline I am all for it.