Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They
AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e
BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German
Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who
By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
My Profile
Holiday Gift Guide
Gift ideas & reviews for this holiday season
Start Browsing
You are here:
Home
>
News
>
Entertainment
>
Article
Home
Business & Finance
News
U.S.
Politics
International
Technology
Entertainment
Film
Music
People
Television
Arts
Industry
Sports
Lifestyle
Oddly Enough
Environment
Health
Science
Special Coverage
Video
Pictures
You Witness
The Great Debate
Blogs
Weather
Reader Feedback
Do More With Reuters
RSS
Widgets
Mobile
Podcasts
Newsletters
You Witness News
Make Reuters My Homepage
Partner Services
CareerBuilder
Affiliate Network
Professional Products
Support (Customer Zone)
Reuters Media
Financial Products
About Thomson Reuters
"Chinese Democracy" shows limits of retail exclusives
Fri Dec 12, 2008 7:47pm EST
Email | Print |
Share
| Reprints | Single Page
[-]
Text
[+]
By Ed Christman
NEW YORK (Billboard) - When Wal-Mart sold 784,000 copies of AC/DC's "Black Ice" during the album's first week in stores, many label executives believed that more superstars would release albums exclusively through big-box retailers.
And when Best Buy experienced disappointing sales of Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy," some of those same executives thought, well, maybe not.
"Chinese Democracy" (Interscope), the rock act's first album of all-new material in 17 years, sold 261,000 units in its first week of availability, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That included sales at Best Buy, exclusive digital retailer iTunes and other stores selling import versions of the album.
While first-week sales forecasts for "Chinese Democracy" ranged from 300,000 to AC/DC's first-week tally of nearly 800,000, most major-label sales prognosticators thought the album might sell between 400,000 and 500,000 units.
So how did one of the most hotly anticipated releases of recent years fall so short of expectations? Some executives suggested that the initial projections for "Chinese Democracy" were out of whack with reality, considering that Wal-Mart has 4,200 stores selling music while Best Buy only has about 950 stores.
But many others say that Best Buy simply didn't promote "Chinese Democracy" as much as Wal-Mart pushed "Black Ice." One major-label head of sales says he didn't see "anywhere near the TV for Guns as I saw for AC/DC."
And while no one expected the consumer electronics chain to duplicate Wal-Mart's store-within-a-store strategy for Guns N' Roses, about half of the executives interviewed for this story said they had a hard time finding "Democracy" at their local Best Buy.
That was certainly true for Best Buy's store in the Woodside neighborhood of Queens. After this writer walked around the store twice looking for "Chinese Democracy," as well as checking the Guns N' Roses section in the album bins, store personnel pointed out the cardboard fixture housing the album. Although it was located at the end of the center aisle, among other merchandising kiosks, shoppers waiting in the checkout line could have easily missed it.
This wasn't the case at many other locations, where the album was displayed in the front of the store.
TURNOFF FACTOR?
Other executives defended Best Buy, saying the retailer wasn't to blame for the poor sales of "Chinese Democracy." They pointed out that while AC/DC dutifully made the media rounds to promote its album, Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose didn't do any interviews to promote his. They also note that the years-long wait for the record, coupled with the mercurial Rose's proclivity for not showing up for concerts, may have finally turned off fans.
Representatives for Best Buy and Interscope didn't respond to requests for comment.
Meanwhile, other retailers that aren't in on big-box exclusives didn't exactly mourn the album's disappointing performance. Some openly crowed about how the album had "flopped," while others said they hope the experience gives major labels pause before signing another such deal.
Music specialty retailers regularly denounce exclusives, saying they are yet another factor hastening the demise of the CD business by forcing customers away from destination music stores with deep catalogs to big-box stores with smaller selections.
Of course, none of this affects Wal-Mart's strong track record with exclusive CD offerings, given its self-reported first-week sales of 1 million units for Garth Brooks' "Limited Series" boxed set in 2006; last year's 711,000 debut-week sales for the Eagles' "Long Road out of Eden"; first-week sales of 105,000 for Journey's three-disc set "Revelation"; and the extraordinary success of AC/DC. Continued...
View article on single page
Share:
Del.icio.us
Digg
Mixx
My Web
Facebook
LinkedIn
Next Article:
Q&A: R&B star Chris Brown inspires avid fans
Also on Reuters
Hugh Jackman to host a new-look Oscars
Slideshow
Slideshow: Unrelenting rain floods Italy's streets
Bernard Madoff's confounding success finally dissected
Editor's Choice
Slideshow
A selection of our best photos from the past 24 hours. Slideshow
Most Popular on Reuters
Articles
Video
Recommended
Nude Virgin Mary cover prompts Playboy apology
Madoff's alleged $50 billion fraud hits other investors
1950s pin-up queen Bettie Page dies
California passes rules for cleaner diesel trucks
Jim Rogers calls most big U.S. banks "bankrupt"
Madoff case to rock already shaky hedge funds
Homelessness rising as economy slides: report
Nude Virgin Mary cover prompts Playboy apology
Visa CEO loses his credit cards
Madoff's alleged $50 billion fraud hits other investors | Video
Most Popular Articles RSS Feed
Video
Fresh riots grip Athens
Anger over Mumbai arrests
Peru student clashes
Enough Troops?
Rome on flood alert
Auto bailout held up
Daytime clashes in Athens
Mugabe blames West for cholera
Obama nativity a bestseller
Obama: Illinois Gov. should resign
Most Popular Videos RSS Feed
Fan Fare
Ask Adam Sandler
Adam Sandler stars in the upcoming holiday comedy “Bedtime Stories". Do your kids have a question for him? Post them here and we'll ask him for you. Blog
Reuters Deals
The global destination for corporate leaders, deal-makers and innovators
Knowledge to Act
Reuters.com:
Help and Contact Us |
Advertise With Us |
Mobile |
Newsletters |
RSS |
Interactive TV |
Labs |
Reuters in Second Life |
Archive |
Site Index |
Video Index
Thomson Reuters Corporate:
Copyright |
Disclaimer |
Privacy |
Professional Products |
Professional Products Support |
About Thomson Reuters |
Careers
International Editions:
Africa |
Arabic |
Argentina |
Brazil |
Canada |
China |
France |
Germany |
India |
Italy |
Japan |
Latin America |
Mexico |
Russia |
Spain |
United Kingdom |
United States
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.