Posted: 27th May, 2008 By: MarkJ
Woolworths, the high street store group, has announced that it will no longer sell CD singles in its stores from August. The group states that downloading is now the method of "
true customer choice" for broadband consumers and has launched a new site to provide related services.
The top 20 CD singles are currently stocked in about half of Woolworths 820 stores. From August they will no longer be ranged, with the exception of one-off big event releases. The CD single market is down by over a third this year compared to 2007 and is less than a sixth the size it was eight years ago:
Woolworths commercial director Jim Batchelor says:
Digital downloading is now the true customer choice for listening and purchasing single music tracks. CDs are alive and well for album sales, but unfortunately the physical singles market is in terminal decline. Our customers are now starting to embrace the world of download which is why we feel the time is right to launch our new digital site.
http://www.woolworthsdownload.comEight million CD singles were bought in the UK in 2007. That compares to 55 million in 2000 and a UK record of 78 million physical singles in 1999 (included tapes, vinyl and CDs). Woolworths had a 25% market share in 2007 and believes the new site is unique in the market place as it offers music, video, games and mobile content.
The top ten music tracks cost 59p for the first week the site is live (all other tracks from 77p), the top ten albums cost £6.99 for the same period (all other albums from £7.97), film and TV prices start at 97p and mobile content from £1.50.
Every major UK digital music release (over 1.2 million tracks) will be available to download, over 1,000 films and TV shows, including recent blockbusters such as Spiderman 3 and Superbad, and an extensive range of games and mobile content.