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AC/DC and Rock Band: A Match Made at Wal-Mart!
Fans looking to purchase the new Black Ice album (or the November release of AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack) from Australian rockers AC/DC can take the highway to… their local brick-and-mortar Wal-Mart (STOCK QUOTE: WMT) or its Web site.
The 70s-era rockers are releasing the new album exclusively through Wal-Mart, following a small, but growing list of top-shelf acts that are releasing their music in non-traditional, exclusive ways.
Are you OK with going exclusively to Wal-Mart to get an album and a video game?
AC/DC joins the list with other boomer rockers, such as the Eagles, Journey, and country legend Garth Brooks to release albums exclusive through the retail chain. But, a special edition video game from the giant American retailer might have more fans turning out to rock out using on the popular video game. The Rock Band Track Pack comes weeks after the successful release of Rock Band 2, and follows on the heels of Aerosmith’s band focused Guitar Hero video game.
Industry experts will have to wait to see the effect of marrying traditional albums to video games through using exclusively brick and mortar stores. Wal-Mart, and its more than 2,500 Wal-Mart stores across the nation, have not brought back the album's golden age, yet.
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Last year, album sales plunged more than 9%, meanwhile digital tracks were up 45%. But, like the real estate market, was the music industry simply correcting itself?
Maybe. Record sales were artificially inflated when CDs came out because people who owned vinyl albums were replacing their collections, says Daniel Anstandig, President of McVay New Media. “This is the first time that type of repurchase has not been absolutely necessary because there is not necessarily a quality leap from CD to digital media.” And, for those that own a CD, uploading on to a computer essentially costs you nothing.
