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Why AC/DC Needs Wal-Mart to Rock!
When AC/DC fans want the group's newest album next month, iTunes (STOCK QUOTE: AAPL) is not going to rock their world.
Instead they can take the highway to… their local brick-and-mortar Wal-Mart (WMT) (or surf its Web site).
That is because these 70s-era rockers are releasing Black Ice 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 having to go to Wal-Mart to get an album?
Other boomer rockers including the Eagles and Journey, as well as country legend Garth Brooks chose Wal-Mart to exclusively deal their CDs. The Eagles Long Road Out of Eden sold 700,000 in its first week, more than this week's top 4 albums combined.
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Still Wal-Mart, and its more than 2,500 Wal-Mart stores across the nation, are not bringing back the album's golden age. 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.
In 1997 online music sales only stood at $50 million. But since the Napster-revolution, musical e-commerce has become a multi-billion dollar industry. Online music supplier iTunes became the largest music supplier this year, followed by Wal-Mart, Best Buy (BBY), Amazon (AMZN) and Target, respectively, according to the latest MusicWatch consumer survey by the NPD Group, a research firmed based in Port Washington, N.Y.
Other brick-and-mortar brands have taken similar routes. Target had exclusive deals with John Legend and Ziggy Marley, and most recently Christina Aguilera, signed on to release a greatest hits album.
What's next, will PetSmart (PETM) try to release Snoop Dog's latest? And will it matter to fans which site, or brick-and-mortar store, they have to go to get it? (What do you think?) Stay tuned!
