For additional information about Musicland Stores Corporation, visit the company's Web site at http://www.musicland.com.
Musicland Stores Corporation Predicts DVD Gaining Substantial Share In Family/Consumer Market
Musicland Stores Corporation, (NYSE: MLG) the nation's largest home entertainment product retailer, predicts a huge increase in DVD purchases from families and other consumers this holiday season. The company bases its projections on product manager observations of buying trends. While VHS continues to dominate the home movie market, DVD is growing rapidly with a predicted 20 to 30 percent share of movie purchases at Musicland's four retail concepts (Sam Goody, On Cue, Media Play and Suncoast Motion Picture Company) and their respective Web sites during the fourth quarter of '99. ""Last year, DVD was popular with mainly a techno-savvy audience,"" said Peter Busch, Musicland's Vice President of Video Merchandising. ""This holiday season the technology has made its way into the mainstream, and we expect to see a big proportion of the purchases coming from the entire consumer base."" Along with this switch, comedy and family titles will be offered on DVD for the first time. ""Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me"" and ""Big Daddy"" currently are the two most popular DVD comedy titles at Musicland's stores. Disney has debuted many of its new and classic family movies on DVD, including ""Mulan,"" ""101 Dalmatians"" and ""Hercules."" In addition, Lyrick Studios, recently released two new Barney titles on DVD. ""Because DVD is a new consumer technology, we except to see substantial sales from individuals who are beginning to build a DVD movie library,"" Busch said. Along with recent releases like ""The Matrix,"" ""Saving Private Ryan,"" and ""The Mummy,"" classics including ""Yellow Submarine,"" ""The Wizard of Oz,"" and ""A Christmas Story"" are forecasted to be among the best selling DVD titles this season. About Musicland Stores Corporation Based in Minneapolis, Musicland Stores Corporation is the leading specialty retailer of home entertainment software products in the United States. As of September 30, 1999, the company operated a total of 1,332 stores including 686 Sam Goody stores, 407 Suncoast Motion Picture Company stores, 71 Media Play stores and 168 On Cue stores based in 49 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. In addition to its four store formats, Musicland also operates five commercial Web sites including: SamGoody.com (http://www.samgoody.com), Suncoast.com, MediaPlay.com, OnCue.com and Requestline.com.