Caught part of this article in the new Rolling Stone where they mapped out the "exclusives" that artists have done in the last couple of years and the sudden wave of them being done now and the main reason is this...Pure profit for both.

The biggest example would be the Eagles, one of last years biggest selling albums, came out a month before the selling year ended and still managed to outsell almost every album that had been out for 11 months, not bad for a band that had no airplay, no video play, no magazine covers, and no band members in jail or getting shot. The Eagles deal was to deliver 3 million copies of their double album "long road out of eden" to walmart, walmart had to price it at 11.98, the Eagles in turn got $4 for each album that sold, to date the album has sold over 3 million copies, now i dont have to do math for you but you can see they basically made 12 million off that record and thats not even counting the signing with walmart bonus. Now heres the bigger kick, the Eagles are an "indie" band, they have no label, i know when we hear "indie" we think of somebody selling their cd at their gigs or out of the trunk of their car, but the Eagles are "indie".

Well that business model of "exclusives" has been done quite alot in the last few years by Beyonce, Elton John, The Stones, and Mariah Carey's Emancipation Tour dvd. But this year will see alot of exclusives from major acts and their latest releases. The First being AC/DC which notched a number one cd for walmart selling 800,000 copies in the states. Also getting the exclusive deal are the following.

Christina Aguilera's Hits collection at Best Buy will sell for 9.98
The Police final tour dvd and cd will sell at best Buy for 24.99
Guns N Roses chinese democracy will sell at best buy for 13.99
Elton John's Red Piano show from vegas will sell for 24.99 at best buy
Ac/Dc is at walmart

these deals allow the artist to set the price, and to set their cut.

Keep hurting the real music stores that made you.

Cinnie said:

I used to think that way when i was involved, but now i dont. Because the retailers got screwed by one and only one thing, the LABELS. The ones that were sending them product forced them all out of business. Im sure we all know the math by now, but Labels drove everyone from Goody to Tower and now Virging out of business, and forced other stores like Best Buy and Circuit City to eliminate music stock because of high priced charges to the stores.

I'm sayin', where are the exclusives for the stores still standing, like HMV?

Cinnie said:

HMV is not even here for the most part (usa) anymore. Most of these artists still retain the right to sell the record on their own personal sites. This is what everyone pushed music to be, the consumer wanted digital, and by going digital it forced everything online, thats why there are no more stores. I mean i would rather go into a store still as opposed to going online to order through someones website, or having to actually walk into best buy. It is unfair to the stores still standing, but its no ones fault but the labels and the push to make everything digital, the day of the music store is over.

lastdecember said:

I wish all of these projects the best. At least they are trying a newish model.

Cinnie said:

Its a no-lose situation, though the media is gonna spin it and talk soundscan and that crap, its all profit from the delivery of the music. In the Eagles case they made almost more on one record than in their entire career.

good for them. but i still feel the biggest losers have been the consumers.

Earth Wind and Fire are gonna release their next CD exclusively thru Wal-Mart.

StarCat said:

Well they didnt support the music and the retailers in their plight so this is what they are left with. People supported all the "big box" retailers and abandoned the real music retailers that could not fight the price fixing and overcharging done by labels, so this is what is left. I fought with people and labels for years just trying the to explain the economics of retail, "the consumers" just know what they see. they walk into tower and see a new cd for 11.99 and know that the cd is also at best buy for 9.99 and they just assume, that tower is a rip-off, well like they said, you get what you get when you assume. I kept telling people this is how it worked, best buy was losing up to 3 dollars per cd, and tower was just breaking even because thats all they had. But people just wanted everything cheap and there, well now its not there anymore.

lastdecember said:

no. i'm actually agreeing with you. i'm just saying that since this music industry fall, that the ones who suffer are the music buyers.

also those big chains mentioned aren't available in all parts of the globe.

lets not forget that indie bands without a label can pull this off since they r funding their own album so walmart shares the money directly with the band.
when u have multiple ppl involved each wants a cut.

eg. madonna could never pull this off coz she needs a red hot producer, red hot song writers, collabs, funding of album. All needin a cut on the action

StarCat said:

Yeah one reason I brought up HMV. We have that in Canada, we do not have Target.

A few points:

*these are all big names, Elton John, Earth, wind and Fire. What if you're a starting band, what are you gonna tell some manager at Wall mart?

*Since apparently the label has been cut from the equation, will not Wall Mart act as label in the future? Same thing, different name.

*But yeah, capitalism is not perfect, but it's what we got. We will always get what we ask (pay) for.

Sander said:

Its the "big names" that are getting the mention, but others like REO speedwagon, Loverboy, Rick Springfield and others have done it with their current records. All these guys have to do is pay for the studios, and most of them have their own so, there isnt really much overhead, and in alot of cases they have their own labels, so walmart or best buy or whoever is just a place to hold their product, and the artist can do their promo from their own sites, andwhile they are touring. Its just a new business model that works for the artist, which at the end of the day is the one that gets screwed the most, and is the one that really has to at least get paid or they wont be doing anything new. I know people think that "CHARTS" decide if you record again, but they dont, its what the artist makes that determines what they can do in the future.

As for Best Buy and Walmart becoming labels, it wont work like that. These deals are one-offs, the artist owns the material, the artist sets the deal. Best buy cant go to Elton John and say look "we cant do this" or "we want this" its just doesnt work like that.

As for a starting band, well this is why places like Tower and Sam Goody were very important and needed to be supported, these two chains were big in doing consignment deals with indie artists, sam goody being the biggest supporter of "roots" reggae, but once everyone started going to the big box stores they coldnt continue and now the doors are closed and the new artists, bands will have to break through on their own sites or sell themselves out and get with a label where they will lucky to get 25cents a cd.