Buying Music I Love At the Store I Hate
By Bob Wire, 11-17-09
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| The album rocks, by the way. Thanks, Chris. | |
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A friend of mine gave me the new KISS album, “Sonic Boom,” for my birthday this weekend. We’re both fans, and it was a thoughtful gesture of rock ‘n roll solidarity as well as friendship. But when I unwrapped the package, my first thought was not, “Wow, the cover looks a lot like Rock and Roll Over,” but “I wonder if he bought this at Wal-Mart.”
KISS made the shrewd business decision to sell its first studio album in 11 years exclusively at the world’s biggest retailer of music CD’s, Wal-Mart. From a purely business standpoint (read: Gene $immons), it seems like a no-brainer—the band sells the CD’s directly to Wally World, thereby cutting out the record label middleman, and pockets $4-$5 per unit rather than the typical $1-$2 under a traditional distribution deal. Of course, the fire-breathing hard rockers aren’t the only well-known act to unleash their latest album this way. The Eagles, Journey, AC/DC and Foreigner all signed exclusive deals in the last couple of years with the giant cheap-smack retailer to sell their “comeback” CD’s at cut-rate prices, thus ensuring huge sales numbers and tasty profit margins. It seems like a cheesy move for these bands that haven’t had a song on the radio since way back when I was getting my first hand job.
Even Bruce Springsteen, Guthriesque hero to blue-collar, working class Americans, succumbed to the lure of a discount monopoly. His 2008 “Greatest Hits” collection was available only at Wal-Mart, and when news of this came out, his fans went ballistic because Wal-Mart pretty much runs their company counter to the very ideals Springsteen has always championed in his songs. When the paradox hit the fan, the Boss backpedaled so furiously he could have won the Tour de France in reverse.
The upshot is, if you want to hear the fabled but dreaded reunion of Don Henley and Glen Frey, if you want to see how much Arnel Pineda sounds like Steve Perry, or if you want to listen to Tommy Thayer cop Ace Frehley’s best licks, you’ll have to rub shoulders with the people of Wal-Mart.
These musical dinosaurs are what’s known in the industry as “heritage” acts—still-touring geezers who had major hits in the 70’s and 80’s, but have fallen off the popular radar in the age of auto-tune rappers and ringtone composers. With the record industry collapsing in on itself like the plot of a Vin Diesel movie, artists have had to find alternative avenues to distribute their music. No longer is the business under the greasy thumb of cigar-chomping fat bastards who light their Cohibas with hundred-dollar bills made on the backs of the artists who wrote and performed the songs. Thanks to the internet, the iPod and CD-burning technology, music is swapped and spread like mononucleosis at a Sadie Hawkins dance. Major artists like Radiohead, Prince and Nine Inch Nails, to name just a few, have released new albums through their own websites, bypassing the physical product altogether, offering the ultimate connection from artist to fan.
Record store chains like Virgin and Tower have gone the way of the 8-track cartridge, and physical music sales are tanking badly. Some industry estimates have overall CD sales shrinking by as much as 25% per year. So along comes Wal-Mart, that behemoth bastion of employee-cheating, charity-ignoring, community-raping retail frenzy that has allowed China to annex the U.S. economy as if it were a timeshare in a Mexican fishing village.
Your local record store, if it hasn’t been wiped off the face of the earth by the smiley-faced bulldozer, sells new-release CD’s anywhere from $14.95 up to their full retail ching of $18.98. The same CD can be bought at Wal-Mart, along with a dress shirt that will lose most of its buttons in the first washing, for $11.94. So where do you think your daughter is going to spend her babysitting money for that new Miley Cyrus disc?
It’s a moot question; she has no choice. Billy Ray’s daughter signed an exclusive deal with Wal-Mart to sell “The Time Of Our Lives.” You can’t buy it anywhere else. And if you do, it means that they sent somebody over to Wal-Mart to buy a few Miley CD’s that they could mark up and sell in their own store. I suppose the teen warbler’s decision was probably influenced by the fact that she also has a clothing line at Wal-Mart. (Nothing says “white trash bloodline” like a clothing line at Wal-Mart.)
Make no mistake about it: the Wal-Mart corporation is a bad actor. The five children of Sam Walton, the late founder of Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club, oversee daily deliveries of shipping containers full of cash to their palatial country estates. They are so rich, T. Boone Pickens cleans their pool while Warren Buffett trims the rose bushes. They’re Bill Gates rich. But here’s the difference: Bill Gates has given 58% of his wealth to charity. The Wal-Mart clan? One lousy percent.
There is a steady stream of class action lawsuits filed against the retail monster, seeking damages for unpaid overtime for forcing their underpaid employees to work through breaks and lunch hours, racial and sexual discrimination in their hiring, and various other heinous misdeeds and corporate gang bangs. Their employees typically have to use public assistance to supplement their incomes, even working full time.
I could go on, but it’s not exactly breaking news that Wal-Mart is a scourge on the American retail landscape. It’s a well-known chain of events: Wal-Mart moves in (sometimes with huge financial subsidies from the community), and local retailers start to go belly-up. It’s the Wal-Mart way. They don’t provide more economic opportunity by providing jobs—they just hire a lot of people at below-market wages, and drive competing businesses out. Why do you think there’s such a huge number of people boycotting the place?
But what sucks is that the economic realities of the record business (rampant greed, resistance to internet distribution) have really funneled down the choices for retail sales. I like KISS. I like the Eagles. I also like Fleetwood Mac, who are also hammering out a deal to release their upcoming album exclusively at Wal-Mart. So if I want to own these CD’s, I’ll have to patronize the evil 800-lb. gorilla with the smiley face.
On the flip side, you have a young band like Green Day, who somehow are either naïve or idealistic enough (but pack enough clout) to refuse Wal-Mart’s demands that they produce a “clean” version of “21st Century Breakdown.” Wal-Mart refused to stock the CD, which is sprinkled with a few F-bombs, and the album calmly went on to sell 215,000 copies in its first three days of release. “21st Century Breakdown” has gone on to multiple-platinum sales, topping the Billboard charts in both the U.S. and Europe.
Wal-Mart will never clean up their act. And they will continue to offer sweetheart promotional deals to huge bands that have outlived the usefulness of their record labels. From a purely economic standpoint, it makes sense.
From a moral standpoint, it sucks.
[Bookmark NewWest.net/BobWire and check back every day. You never know what’s going to get stuck in his craw.]
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Comments
That is an interesting observation.
You can blame it on Captalism, I s'pose.
Others, including me, blame it on "moral relativism." We have been indoctrinated into a mindset that we shouldn't push our old-fashioned and obsolete mores upon our fellow citizens, because "what's immoral to us might not be immoral to them." We have largely lost our moral compass as a society. (And some shout "Hurrah!")
It's interesting to think about walking into a place - whether it be Wal-Mart or the mom&pop;"record store" - and plunking down some money for a CD. I bet I haven't done that for 5 years. Mostly because I bought all the GOOD music at least 5 years ago!
(-;
maybe the govt should take over walmart and operate it more efficiently causing prices to rise thus running off customers, giving them less choices.
I can proudly say I haven't set foot in a Walmart for almost 6 years now. This is due to all the reasons you sited Bob. Contrary to the Walmart mantra, my family is still being fed and I don't really notice the 9 pennies I could have saved on hamburger helper in my weekly budget.
When a band signs on to gulp the love nectar that is Walmarts corrupt buy/distribute/sell monopoly, I liken that band to my last (cheating whore) ex-wife and I find I can live without them. Yes, it is a “smell my own fart” attitude but WTF...I'm a good cook and my gas really does have a delicious musty bouquet.
That way
*KISS moves their product (which is quite good if you are a fan) *Walmart gets the finger and
*the 'security staff' (imagine Tim Conway's old man character crossed with Jan Michael Vincent '09) will see some action for a change.
Now I'm not CONDONING petty larceny, but it's still a great idea no matter how you slice it!