BloggingStocks

Sir Richard Branson exits the music retailing business

Brian White — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:00:00 EST

Sir Richard Branson is selling Virgin Megastores to a management buyout team and exiting the music retailing business four decades after it helped him start on the road to becoming a mogul. Some odd, bold move or calculated business strategy? It's easily the latter.

With music retailing slowly morphing into an industry that uses internet downloads and digital forms of music instead of the physical CD, the move should not come as a surprise to anyone. From an economic perspective, the music industry worldwide is reaping what it sows as sales of $15 CDs are losing out to the 99 cent download. Plus, there are "subscription" music services where customers can 'rent' music for a monthly fee and never have to buy or carry another CD again.

Branson's move here, even in the industry that started his career as a global entrepreneur, has been timed perfectly. Branson, like most business owners, knows entrance and exit strategies with the best of them, and apparently he sees the brick-and-mortar music retailing business slowly becoming extinct in the iPod age.

Should other music retailers listen up? Most of them have, and have dropped prices on CDs to levels comparable to music downloads, or are using CDs as loss leaders to get traffic inside stores for other, higher-margin purchases. But, for Branson to sell off what was his business baby should signal a shift to the music retailers who have not listened so far: compete in the new internet music distribution era or perish.

Sir Richard Branson exits the music retailing business originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Virgin America to introduce 'premium economy class'

Kevin Shult — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:15:00 EST

Filed under: Launches, Industry, Consumer Experience, Competitive Strategy, Interviews, Southwest Airlines (LUV), US Airways Group (LCC), UAL Corp (UAUA), JetBlue Airways (JBLU)

USA Today's Ben Mutzabaugh had an interesting Q&A session with Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group and Virgin Atlantic Airways, on last week's inaugural flight from New York JFK Airport to San Francisco. Reading Branson's description of the new Virgin flights made me want to book a flight to San Fran immediately.

What interested me from the start of the interview was one of things that Branson said would set Virgin America apart from the other U.S. carriers, something he planned to introduce called "premium economy class." He described this as seating that would be "for people who want more legroom but can't afford first class." Mind you that the most expensive first-class tickets Virgin America has right now are approximately $650, but who wants to pay that for a flight when you can have "premium economy class?"

A quick check on Virgin Atlantic's website, because Virgin America has yet to initiate this service, and they show me that premium economy seating has 38 inches of leg room, compared to the standard 33 inches in economy seating, and a seat width of 21 inches. This is has to be a dream! Once this "premium economy class" comes to Virgin America, I'm certainly going to think of using them for my next flight. More space for less money, it's an amazing concept. I just hope they can last that long in the States with Northwest Airlines (NYSE: NWA), AirTran (NYSE: AAI), Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV), US Airways (NYSE: LCC), JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ: JBLU), United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAUA) and all the other U.S. carriers competing for the same ticket.

Virgin America to introduce 'premium economy class' originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Virgin America enters U.S. airspace -- What does that mean for U.S. airlines?

Kevin Shult — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: International Markets, Bad News, Launches, Industry, Consumer Experience, Competitive Strategy, Southwest Airlines (LUV), US Airways Group (LCC), AMR Corp (AMR), UAL Corp (UAUA), JetBlue Airways (JBLU), Delta Air Lines (DAL)

As of today, there's a new airline in the skies: Virgin America. That's right folks: British Billionaire Richard Branson has expanded his Virgin Atlantic fleet across the pond. The new San Francisco-based start-up will use a fleet of Airbus A320's to fly two routes: San Francisco to J.F.K in New York and San Francisco to Los Angeles International.

While Virgin America will only open with those two routes, they plan on ramping its schedule fast. In the next three months, Virgin will add Las Vegas and Washington Dulles to the schedule and move up to a total 10 U.S. destinations a year from now. The fleet plans to service 30 destinations within the next five years.

Continue reading Virgin America enters U.S. airspace -- What does that mean for U.S. airlines?

Virgin America enters U.S. airspace -- What does that mean for U.S. airlines? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments