From today’s New York Times – On Tuesday Wal-Mart started selling on an exclusive basis a three-disc collection by the popular 1980s band Journey called “Revelation.†The difference, however, is that there is no middleman: the album was bought directly from the band without the help of a record label. Journey went right to Wal-Mart and kept most of the money a record company would normally take as profit for the group. Last year Wal-Mart made a similar deal with the Eagles, who like Journey are represented by Front Line Management, the nation’s largest music management company.
The deals highlight the changing dynamics of the music industry as once-powerful labels decline because of the migration to digital downloads. To fill the gap, musicians are scrambling to connect with fans, and Wal-Mart is using these exclusive deals to assume a new role: hit maker.
The Eagles’ double disc, “Long Road Out of Eden,†sold 711,000 copies in its first week and three million since its release, according to Nielsen SoundScan, impressive numbers at a time when CD sales are declining. Journey sold 45,000 albums in its first three days on sale, and Irving Azoff, founder and chief executive of Front Line Management and a music industry veteran who ran MCA Records in the ’80s, predicted that it would sell more than 80,000 copies in its first week. That is probably enough to debut in the top five, and significantly more than its last album sold in total.
You probably saw news on this already, but the new AC/DC will be Wal-Mart-only as well. :(
June 9th, 2008 at 11:41 amWal-Mart and Butt Rock…are we shocked? It’s pro wrestling next…we’re doomed.
June 9th, 2008 at 5:25 pmIt’s about time! Now we will be buying cheaper CDs where the music industry before was unregulated and they just make the CD prices higher. Most unregulated CD prices goes up as moch as $15. And a DVD concert of the same artist is about trhe same to $20. CD is just sound while DVD is sound and video. So, for an extra few bucks, I switched to DVD a long time ago–and if I want music only, I just turn my TV or projector off. The music industry had bilked us with unregulated costly CDs for a long time. I am not really fond of Walmart and finally they were able to break the habit of greedy middleman of the music industry.
June 9th, 2008 at 7:57 pmerrr…. I don’t know of many artists that release dvd’s of their albums though, it’s typically live performances. I guess if you like listening to live performance all the same that’s a good plan but it’s not a logical substitute.
June 10th, 2008 at 11:08 am