Music to a Kid's Ears

With additional reporting by regional correspondents Virginia Davis and Elizabeth Greenspan

Toys and music have gone hand-in-hand since the first music box. But now, with iPods and downloads, CD mega-stores and file sharing, kid’s music at the toy store is becoming an endangered species. Or is it? TDmonthly Magazine’s regional correspondents found that retailers who carry music are doing well with small labels, such as Putumayo World Music (ToyShow), Rounder Records and Twin Sisters Productions. 

Playing Music Sells It
Greg Bonner, owner of Heights Toy Center Inc. in Little Rock, Ark., expressed the problems of selling kids’ CDs in toy stores: “There’s a bookstore next door that does that.”

Dianne Boyd, owner of Toys & Company in Myrtle Beach, S.C., agreed: “We used to carry more, but people don't come to the toy stores for kids CDs; they buy them where they buy their music.”

Yet despite the obstacles, toy store owners persevere. Debbie Scholl, owner of Fundamentally Toys in Houston, keeps her CDs from Putumayo “by front counter. … We do very well. We play their music in the store and people enjoy listening to it.”

For Louise Sanford, owner of Black Forest Toys, Charlotte, N.C., Rounder Records rate high. Why? “Kids like them,” she said simply.

Sid Clark, owner of Ali-Cats in Carboro, N.C., also finds that the Rounder titles sell well. And Andrea Keys, manager of Dilly Dally’s in Rogers Ark., had this to say:

Make It Fun
“We sell a lot of Sugar Beats (Rounder Kids). They do sounds that you know, but done in a fun way, tastefully." Of other Rounder Records CDs, she said, "Philadelphia Chickens is hysterical, and Rhinoceros Tap. They’re fun and whimsical. Stars sing on it: the Bacon Brothers, Meryl Streep. It’s great.”

“Twin Sisters Productions,” piped in Helen Noland, owner of Father Goose in Macon, Ga. Three other retailers agreed.

Other good sellers mentioned repeatedly were The Wiggles. Shinga Liberman, manager of Gretchen’s in Atlanta said, “They are fun records ... silly. They’re what the children like, and kids still like music for kids, about kids.”

Find Local Talent
To combat the bigger CD stores, many toy store owners have dug into the local talent, discovering unknowns and soon-to-be knowns. Terry Meyers, owner of Kaleidoscope Toys of Round Rock, Texas, features an artist named Joe McDermott. “He’s our local celebrity.”

Kate Tanner of Scottsdale, Ariz.’s Kidstop Toy & Book Store, has found a “fantastic group who create all their own music: Imagination Movers. They’re our best-selling CD, and a local group that just signed with Disney. Their CDs outsell anything we’ve had.”

For the future? “’Broadway Kids’ and ‘John Lithgow Singing in the Bathtub.’ People want the surefire ones, still.”

What follows is more information on children’s CDs that sell well in toy stores.