Welcome to The Musicland Group online archive, a collection of information and artifacts related to the Musicland, Sam Goody, Suncoast, On Cue and Media Play chains of stores.

Musicland opened its first store in Minneapolis in 1955. Through future mergers and acquisitions with J. L. Marsh, Pickwick, and American Can Company, the company incorporated as The Musicland Group in 1977 and acquired the Sam Goody chain of stores in 1978. In the 1990s, the majority of Musicland stores were converted to the Sam Goody brand.

In 1986, Musicland launched its Suncoast Motion Picture Company stores — initially as Paramount Pictures stores, and later renamed to Suncoast. The Media Play and On Cue store formats debuted in 1992; Media Play as a big box media retailer, and On Cue as a shopping mall format intended for smaller, more rural markets not served by Musicland or Sam Goody stores.

In 2001, The Musicland Group was acquired by Best Buy Co. Inc. In 2003, Musicland was turned over to Sun Capital Partners. Later that year, 150 of Musicland's then 1,100 total stores closed. By the time Musicland stores were acquired by Trans World Entertainment in 2006, only 400 stores remained. In 2006 and 2007, many Sam Goody stores faced closure, while others were rebranded to FYE stores.

Today, a small number of Sam Goody and Suncoast stores remain in operation under their original names. But as FYE stores face continued pressure from the demise of mall-based retail, this small number of remaining stores continues to dwindle over time.