Musicland Group Adds SACD to 177 Stores Next Week

The Musicland Group announced this week that it is bringing SACD discs to its Internet web sites and a number of its stores.

According to Musicland officials, SACDs from several record companies including Sony, Telarc, Chesky, Heads Up and Mobile Fidelity are now available for purchase through their Internet web site. SACDs from additional record companies will be added in the near future.

Starting next week, SACDs from these labels and others will begin appearing in stores that are part of the Musicland Group.

This will include all Media Play stores and some of the Sam Goody stores that are part of the Musicland Group. Musicland plans to monitor sales of the SACD discs in these stores and if the format gains momentum, the number of stores carrying SACD discs will be expanded.

The SACDs will appear in their own section of the store. Musicland envisions that as the sales and success of the SACD format grows, the SACDs will eventually be migrated into the racks with the rest of the standard Stereo CDs carried by Musicland.

Musicland’s Dieter Wilkinson told me that

“Today there are several SACD players with more coming including the new Sony DVD/SACD player being retailed at under $200. Along with this, various labels are announcing that they will be putting titles out in the SACD format. Additionally, the release of the 22 Rolling Stones titles remastered to Hybrid Layer SACD discs is great PR for the SACD format. It also makes sense to be able to play Hybrid SACDs on a CD player and then when you upgrade to an SACD player, you have the benefits of SACD as well.”