The Musicland Group, Inc. was an entertainment company that ran Musicland, Sam Goody , Discount Records, Suncoast Motion Picture Company , On Cue, and the Media Play Superstore Chains. The Musicland Group was purchased by Best Buy in 2001 at the height of Musicland's success, which ultimately led to its demise. Jack Eugster was the CEO of The Musicland Group, from 1980, until February 2001. Its headquarters were in Minnetonka, Minnesota .
20-562: The first Musicland store was opened in 1955 in Minneapolis by Grover Cleveland Sayre II, where the company continued to be headquartered for the remainder of its history, by Heilicher Brothers, a Minneapolis-based regional record distributor and owner of the Soma Records label. In 1964 Musicland merged with JL Marsh and in 1968 with Pickwick International . In 1977, American Can Company purchased Pickwick International and in 1978 purchased
40-457: A United States record label is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Suncoast Motion Picture Company Suncoast Motion Picture Company ( Suncoast ) was an American chain of retail stores specializing in new and used physical media, primarily CDs , DVDs , Blu-rays , and vinyl records , as well as collectibles. Suncoast was initially a subsidiary of Musicland before being purchased by Transworld Entertainment . After
60-697: A major initiative with the rollout of its big-box Media Play concept. Media Play was a chain of retail superstores that sold movies on video , laserdiscs , music , electronics , video games , books , toys , and games in the United States . Each store essentially contained a book store, a movie store, a music store, and a video game store under one roof. At their height, they operated 72 stores in 19 states with 2,000 employees. The first store opened in Rockford, Illinois , in 1992. Hundreds of stores were slated to be opened, but only 89 ever were. Mostly freestanding,
80-609: A result, they put the company up for sale and were likely just weeks away from liquidating the entire chain when they found a buyer in Sun Capital Partners of Boca Raton, Florida. Sun Capital acquired the company in a cash-free transaction in exchange for acquiring Musicland's debt and leases. Sun Capital attempted to get the company back to basics, but ultimately the dual pressure of internet downloading and big box competition proved too much and in December 2005 Sun Capital announced
100-416: Is estimated that between 1995 and 2000 customers were overcharged by nearly $ 500 million and up to $ 5 per album. Best Buy failed to generate the results they were looking for with Musicland, losing $ 85 million (~$ 138 million in 2023) in 2002. Best Buy admitted mall based retail was a different business concept from their Best Buy stores, and that they had failed at properly running The Musicland Group. As
120-669: The Sam Goody chain of record stores, which had a long history going back to 1951 in New York. Shortly after, Musicland began converting the majority of its stores to the Sam Goody brand name, although some locations did retain the Musicland name into the early 2000s. In 1997, the Musicland Group converted the remaining Musicland stores to the Sam Goody brand. The company expanded rapidly during
140-488: The Kay Bank Studios, where most of Soma's recordings were made. Soma recorded many local and regional rock groups during the 1960s at Kay Bank Studios, including The Accents, Gregory Dee and The Avanties, The Underbeats, and The Del Counts, as well as distributing other smaller labels (such as Garrett, Bangar, Golden Ring and Studio City). Country singer Dave Dudley 's first album , containing his biggest hit " Six Days on
160-511: The Road ", was released on Golden Ring Records in 1963, and distributed by Soma until Mercury Records bought the rights. Soma continued releasing recordings until 1967, when the co-owned record distributing company was merged into Pickwick Records . The Heilicher brothers exited the recorded music business in 1977. Amos Heilicher died of pneumonia in August 2011, aged 90. This article about
180-500: The Sam Goody brand, reducing its position in books and moving more into video games and DVD. Many Musicland employees, particularly management, were not happy at all with the Best Buy acquisition or their business model and tactics. As part of a 2002 settlement with 41 states over CD price fixing Musicland, along with retailers Tower Records and Trans World Entertainment , agreed to pay a $ 3 million (~$ 4.86 million in 2023) fine. It
200-656: The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York; store closures during the bankruptcy included 80 Suncoast stores In late March 2006, Trans World Entertainment Corp . completed the purchase of nearly all of the assets of Musicland Holding Corporation for $ 104.2 million in cash and $ 18.1 million in assumed liabilities. TWEC retained the Suncoast name on around 170 stores after acquisition. However, on December 26, 2009, they announced
220-723: The United States. Once Paramount pulled out of the joint venture, Musicland changed the store’s name to Suncoast Motion Picture Company in 1988. In 1999, Musicland launched websites for Suncoast, Sam Goody, Media Play, and Oncue. In 2001, Best Buy purchased their then parent-company, Musicland , for $ 685 million. In January 2003, Best Buy closed 20 Suncoast stores as part of a larger closing that included 90 Sam Goody stores. Later that year in June 2003, Sun Capital Partners assumed Musicland's liabilities from Best Buy. In January 2006, The Musicland Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in
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#1732877229875240-641: The closure of all remaining Media Play stores. The now Sun Capital owned Musicland Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2006, and in February announced the closing [1] of 226 Sam Goody and 115 Suncoast Motion Picture Company stores, and all Media Play locations. In March 2006, Trans World Entertainment announced the purchase of Musicland's remaining 400 Sam Goody and Suncoast stores from Sun Capital, along with their websites. Trans World kept 345 of those stores open and closed 55. Transworld began converting
260-579: The mall boom of the 1980s and continued to grow into the nineties, enjoying a long tenure as the United States' largest specialty retailer of entertainment products. Most of its Sam Goody stores were located in shopping malls. The company helped launch the careers of many prominent artists, including Michael Jackson. In 1986, the first Suncoast Motion Picture Company store was opened as Paramount Pictures (the name change would come in 1988.) This store concept specialized in movies and movie memorabilia, also located in shopping malls. In 1992, Musicland launched
280-552: The master and issued it nationally. Among the hits released by Soma were " Mule Skinner Blues " by The Fendermen (purchased from Wisconsin's Cuca label), " Liar, Liar " by The Castaways , "Run, Run, Run" by The Gestures and " Surfin' Bird " by The Trashmen . The last record was distributed by Soma, but recorded on the Garrett Records label - George Garrett was an engineer behind the mixing console at Kay Bank Studios on many Soma recordings. Heilicher had some ownership in
300-561: The purchase most stores were stocked like its sister chain FYE . Transworld entertainment was purchased by Sunrise Records in 2020 making Suncoast a subsidiary of Sunrise. The first Suncoast store opened in Roseville, Minnesota , in 1986 as Paramount Pictures. This was a joint venture between the Paramount movie studio and Musicland, which at the time was one of the largest music and video retailers in
320-655: The remaining Sam Goody mall stores to FYE, their signature retail brand, but chose to keep the Suncoast Motion Picture Co. name on about 170 stores. [2] More than 100 Sam Goody stores remained in operation as of January 2007, but as a result of a disappointing fourth quarter and full year 2006 for Transworld Entertainment, chief executive Robert Higgins announced in their fourth quarter earnings conference call that many of those remaining Sam Goody stores would be facing closure. In late 2006, Transworld started converting Sam Goody stores to FYE stores. A Musicland store
340-432: The stores averaged a massive 45,000 square feet (4,200 m) in metropolitan areas. During the same period, the company also developed a small market Media Play by opening On Cue stores across the country as well. These "small town Media Plays" also sold Music, Books and Movies, as well as musical instruments and gave small towns that were not near a major metro a place for great selection. In 2001, The Musicland Group Inc.
360-475: Was "Amos" spelled backwards. Heilicher, along with his brother Danny, was also in the jukebox and wholesale record distribution businesses, and owned the Musicland chain of retail music stores. Started in 1954, Soma began mainly recording polka music, old-time country and western , and jazz groups. Its first hit was Bobby Vee 's 1959 "Suzie Baby", which was a regional smash before Liberty Records bought
380-642: Was one of the various stores reconstructed for the set of R. L. Stine 's Fear Street Part One: 1994 at the North DeKalb Mall in Atlanta, Georgia. Late Slipknot drummer, Joey Jordison , once worked at a Musicland store in Iowa. Soma Records (U.S. label) Soma Records was an American record label , based in Minneapolis, Minnesota , and owned by wholesale record distributor Amos Heilicher. The Soma name
400-443: Was purchased by Best Buy inc. as part of its initiative to diversify its retail holdings to reach a larger demographic with its consumer electronics and entertainment products. By then, Musicland numbered over 1300 stores. Their intention was to transform Sam Goody into a destination for young people looking for hip electronics. They launched a major remerchandising campaign and converted Musicland's On Cue concept of rural stores to
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