Today's the Last Day to Visit a Virgin - US Megastores will be no more
For two tortuous years, The British-based Virgin Megastores remained the largest music-only based chain. But the sales of CDs have dropped by half since 2000, iTunes has grown to control 20% of the market, Amazon has taken 8% of the market while WalMart and Target continue to stuggle to maintain their market share. Tower Records demise in 2006 merely heralded the dramatic transformation of music sales. With the sale of the last New York and Los Angeles Virgin Megastores, the chain will leave the U.S. It still has over 100 stores worldwide.
Rollingstone does find a glimmer of a silver lining in the long lines outside the 14th Street store as people pick up deeply discounted discs for their collections. But this silver lining is thin indeed. The economic downturn has put pressure on music sales and live ticket sales. The industry's strategies to stop illegal downloading have failed. As CBS news pointed out, the top album in 2000 had a 3.6 million CD sales opening week. This year's Green Day achieved the goal with 600,000 units. ('N Sync's No Strings Attached sold 9.9 million in 2000; Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter III" sold 2.88 million in 2008 - the first time the top album was below 3 million, according to Billboard. Coldplay's "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends" followed well behind at 2.15 million.)
Ringtones, video games and other music genres are replacing some of the revenue streams, but the shuttering of Virgin Megastores should not go unnoticed. Today may not be the day the music died, but we've lost a friend nonetheless.
Rollingstone does find a glimmer of a silver lining in the long lines outside the 14th Street store as people pick up deeply discounted discs for their collections. But this silver lining is thin indeed. The economic downturn has put pressure on music sales and live ticket sales. The industry's strategies to stop illegal downloading have failed. As CBS news pointed out, the top album in 2000 had a 3.6 million CD sales opening week. This year's Green Day achieved the goal with 600,000 units. ('N Sync's No Strings Attached sold 9.9 million in 2000; Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter III" sold 2.88 million in 2008 - the first time the top album was below 3 million, according to Billboard. Coldplay's "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends" followed well behind at 2.15 million.)
Ringtones, video games and other music genres are replacing some of the revenue streams, but the shuttering of Virgin Megastores should not go unnoticed. Today may not be the day the music died, but we've lost a friend nonetheless.
