It's a battle of the bands, as AC/DC's Black Ice slugs it out with Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy.
It's a battle of the brands, as Wal-Mart
The Wall Street Journal took a look at both releases earlier this week. It's not even close.
|
First two weeks on the market |
CD Sales |
|---|---|
|
Black Ice |
1,055,000 |
|
Chinese Democracy |
318,000 |
Source: Nielsen SoundScan.
The rub for Best Buy is that it already paid for 1.3 million copies of GNR's album in the deal to secure initial retail exclusivity. Sales fell sharply in the second week and are unlikely to recover unless the record scores a commercial hit.
That is certainly possible. There are a few GNR-style rock ballads that sound radio friendly on the disc. I would also be shocked if "Better" doesn't get released as a single soon, since it's a much better choice than the title track, commercially speaking.
However, going by today's report card, we can probably begin wondering why Best Buy dropped the ball here. It didn't necessarily bet on the wrong horse. Neither band has had a stateside radio hit in ages, so both releases were gambles.
This doesn't mean that Best Buy shouldn't learn from what Wal-Mart did right. More than just a CD release, Wal-Mart went all out to promote the exclusivity. It raised the stakes by loading up on AC/DC apparel to sell and even teamed up with Viacom
Wal-Mart took a page out of the "360 deals" that venue promoter Live Nation
In the end, Wal-Mart gets it. Best Buy may appear to devote more shelf space to music in its stores than Wal-Mart, but the discount department store that Sam Walton built is the country's leading CD retailer by girth alone.
It's no surprise to find that the company that bet on the bobbing Australian guitarist in a schoolboy outfit schooled the consumer electronics powerhouse that should know better.
Forget stocks for a moment. Would you rather go see Guns N' Roses or AC/DC live? Post your thoughts in the comment box below.
