{"id":30005,"date":"2013-01-18T01:33:01","date_gmt":"2013-01-17T23:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=30005"},"modified":"2013-01-18T09:44:59","modified_gmt":"2013-01-18T07:44:59","slug":"musica-bullish-despite-itunes-arrival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/30005\/musica-bullish-despite-itunes-arrival\/","title":{"rendered":"Musica bullish despite iTunes arrival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Musica<\/a>, the South African music and entertainment retailer, is optimistic that the arrival of iTunes<\/a> in South Africa will complement its offering and\u00a0stimulate the local music industry.<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s iTunes Store was officially launched in over 50 new countries, including South Africa, in early December.<\/p>\n

What can be described as Musica\u2019s equivalent in the UK, HMV earlier this week announced that it was going into administration citing a consumer shift toward online shopping and digital downloads.<\/p>\n

\u201cMusica welcomes the launch of iTunes in South Africa and we are certain this online music store will stimulate our country\u2019s music industry and music lovers alike,\u201d said Moenieba Abrahams<\/a>, Musica’s marketing & HR manager.<\/p>\n

Abrahams noted that iTunes was always available in South Africa, \u201cjust not legally until now\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe official launch in South Africa sits comfortably with our expansion into entertainment-related products such as headphones, portable speakers, docking stations, etc.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, since we\u2019re the largest stockist of headphones in this country, our brand will complement iTunes as more customers will be inspired to accessorise their music systems,\u201d the marketing lead said.<\/p>\n

Abrahams opined that\u00a0CD sales were likely to increase “as they will benefit from additional exposure through iTunes, combined with the continuing demand for the physical format that still exists in this country”.<\/p>\n

In results for the year ended August 2012, Musica, which is under the Clicks Group<\/a> of businesses, said it would close 14 stores as part of a cost management procedure.<\/p>\n

“Musica increased operating profit by 36.3% and has continued to gain market share in CDs, DVDs and gaming,” Clicks said.<\/p>\n

Over the reporting period, Musica noted a decline in turnover to R871.515 million, from R895.6 million in 2011, with total income also\u00a0marginally off at R313 million, from R319 million in 2011.<\/p>\n

The group improved its pre-tax profit to R42.81 million, from R31.418 million before.<\/p>\n

\"Musica<\/a>

Musica performance<\/p><\/div>\n

Arthur Goldstuck<\/a> \u2013 an\u00a0analyst\u00a0and commentator on Internet, mobile, business and consumer\u00a0technologies, and MD of World Wide Worx<\/a> \u2013 was rather blunt in his assessment of what these services would mean to physical retailers. \u201cThis is the end of the beginning of the end for physical music retailers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Darren Levy<\/a>, the chief executive of Musica rival, Look & Listen<\/a>, was also bullish over the company’s prospects in a recent interview with BusinessTech, pointing out that it\u00a0has had an online presence and an e-commerce platform for a number of years.<\/p>\n

“We are focusing more and more online as we see the trend of online shopping growing as more people understand and trust the online shopping experience,” he said.<\/p>\n

The chief executive also stressed that the company was more than just a music store.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of music streaming or more download sites flooding the market, we are more than just a music store. Our other formats such as electronics, gifts\/gadgets, toys and gaming also play an important role and form part of our brand of being an all-encompassing \u2018entertainment store\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on digital retail in South Africa<\/h3>\n

Look & Listen more than brick and mortar: CEO<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

What iTunes means for SA\u2019s brick and mortar<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

iTunes launches in SA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Rara music service in SA \u2013 special R6.99 pricing<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Flat-rated music streaming service launched in SA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Flat-rated data packages for streaming music<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Simfy music streaming coming for SA: all the details<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

iTunes 11 launches<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

App Store games in SA \u201csoon\u201d?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Musica is optimistic that the arrival of iTunes in South Africa will compliment its offering and stimulate the local music industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":27814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9882],"tags":[51,26,3348,3696,4782],"class_list":["post-30005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-apple","tag-headline","tag-itunes","tag-looklisten","tag-musica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30005"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30094,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30005\/revisions\/30094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}