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Target will still sell music, despite rumours it was concerned over Friday release day
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 2 March 2015
American retailer Target will not stop selling CDs just because of that pesky Friday global release day, or that’s what a spokesperson has told Music Week.
When the long expected confirmation that Friday would become the unified day for releasing new records worldwide took a few weeks longer to arrive than expected, there was speculation that the delay was down to pressure being put on the major record companies by the big CD-selling non-specialist retailers Stateside, including Target.
Some US and UK retailers have argued that they will bear the brunt of the costs involved in switching from having new CDs going on the shelves on Monday/Tuesday to Friday. And for non-music specialists, including supermarkets and discount stores, for which CDs are not big earners, there was speculation the switch might result in some of those sellers bailing on music entirely.
But American retail firm Target says that it supports the music industry’s move to have one worldwide release day, and that it has “absolutely no plans to stop selling music in our stores or on Target.com”.
So there you go. As previously reported, the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry last week confirmed that a Friday release day would be adopted worldwide later this year. Meanwhile the Entertainment Retailers Association in the UK revealed that an increase in the number of non-specialist retailers selling CDs meant there were now more places to buy music on the high street than ever before.
