Back in February, I snarkily reported on JB Hi-Fi’s half-yearly results, and in particular the ongoing decline in the sale of music and movies. If you think of hitting JB for CDs or DVDs, you’re in the minority.
The retailer’s annual results are out today, and the picture is even worse. Straight from the investor deck:
Software sales (Music, Movies and Games) were 3.6% of total sales (FY23: 4.1%).
That’s a massive decline even from mid-year, when the figures were 4.2% and 4.4%. In other words: the decline is happening even faster. We don’t know if we’ve hit bottom yet, but we certainly won’t see more space for the category in store.
It’s the same story in JB’s New Zealand outfits, with slightly higher percentages: 5.6% of sales, down from 6.4% the year before.
Why do I always bang on about this? Folks love to pursue the narrative of the “vinyl revival”, claiming that the ancient format has revitalised sales and pointing to questionable trends like ALDI selling vinyl albums.
The figures here tell a different story. While there are still folks buying music, it’s a shrinking number. We live in a streaming universe.
I’m a physical media enthusiast, and CDs are my drug of pleasure. But it’s rare for me to buy one from JB, and if I do, it’ll probably be an online order. I’m OK with that. I don’t like the delusion of folks suggesting it’s not a declining market. It absolutely is.
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