An article in Rolling Stone yesterday outlined how Wal-Mart wants every CD they sell to their customers to cost $10 or less - something that would be industry-changing and would be sure to inject some serious life into record sales. According to the article, in the past decade, Wal-Mart has quietly emerged as the nation's biggest record store. Wal-Mart now sells an estimated one out of every five major-label albums. It has so much power, industry insiders say, that what it chooses to stock can basically determine what becomes a hit. "If you don't have a Wal-Mart account, you probably won't have a major pop artist," says one label executive.
The cool thing is that Wal-Mart is playing hardball on this. They want the record companies to lower their price for CD titles - and they are preapred to fill the gap with video game and DVDs if they don't comply. The great thing is that Wal-Mart is saying what we all have for years: It's CHEAP to make and distribute CDs, even taking into account recording, royalty and production costs. Could this be the start of a beautiful move against the RIAA to reduce pricing/profits/overhead? Let's hope so. Let's also hope that if the RIAA tries to squeeze the artisits to make up the difference that they will jump to independent labels in droves and send the industry reeling into free market economics. Thanks to WmAx for the article tip!
too bad it's Walmart.
does this mean more censored/edited albums?
Yeah, there's good and bad in this. I like the way they're forcing major labels to lower prices, but at the expense of variety and freedom. As one who enjoys an eclectic music collection, I am concerned that this will reduce the overall quality of music that's available to the public.
Woe to us if we have to look upon Walmart as a savior and paragon of virtue. Walmart censors what it stocks and is sneaky about it. If you look in the rap section at some record stores, you will find unexpurgated and censored versions of the same title clearly labeled as such. However, at Walmart, you will find only the censored version, but it is not labeled "censored", so you won't know you have the censored version until you bring it home and play it. It's awful, because there are just pauses where the deleted words were. Walmart has also been unethical in the way it responds to lawsuits of injured customers across the country. Judges usually restrain their negative comments about a litigant to the confines of the courtroom, but a judge went on national television to report Walmart's unethical behavior in a number of court cases. And Walmart has been discriminatory in the promotion of women to management positions and now faces a class action by hundreds of their present and former female employees. I'd rather spend my money elsewhere and probably get just as good a deal.
I will always shop elsewhere, even if I have to pay twice the price. I like service. I like when my questions are answered. Walmart has never been able to provide that sort of service. Some might say it's because the employees are dumb, but they can only be as dumb as the people who train them to do their job.
What's the solution to that problem? The kids that work at all the local record stores here are just as dense. You're probably better off just buying online.
I realize Wally World is the "great white whale" for many people, and upon its back they heap the sins of the corporate world, but they're no worse than any other company. I pretty much never buy anywhere else without checking their price first, since they're virtually always the lowest (with the exception of the bait & switch tactics and loss leaders a couple local grocery stores have).
When it comes to music, I rarely buy anything there mostly due to the fact that they rarely have anything I want (no DVD-A or SACDs, and I don't really buy pop music very often).
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Many big chain stores such as Best Buy and Circuit City routinely sell CDs for around $10. Of course they are often limited to 'good' music from prior to the rap/hip-hop crap, which suits me just fine.
I wouldn't buy a cd of any of the current illiterate rap artists, clean or not, even if wal-mart offered them for $1.
I realize Wally World is the "great white whale" for many people, and upon its back they heap the sins of the corporate world, but they're no worse than any other company.
Rob, I have to disagree with you. Wal Mart is by far the largest retail chain in the US (World?), and they use this power to muscle their way to the lowest prices possible, with little to no regard to what the market really demands. Selling products for less than they are worth is good for Wal Mart as it allows them to maintain their position as the 'top banana' of retailers, but it is bad for the overall health of the economy.
Check out this article by Fast Company , it illustrates this nicely. It's an interesting read.
Personally, I shop at Wal Mart only for basic necessities and only because I'm operating on a student's budget. As soon as I start making any kind of money, it's adios Wally World for me.
Last edited by slmcdonald7 : 10-14-2004 at 09:17 PM.
As for the *worth* of an item, that is an all too complicated subject for me to attempt an objective analysis upon. But speaking personally/subjectively and to the topic of this thread, I find that CDs are vastly overpriced even though I love music more then most things. I feel that $10 is still too expensive, too be honest. $8 would be a good target IMO. But I'm heavily biased -- I would love to see the 5 majors go bankrupt; *independants starting to supply the majority of products.... The majors aren't good for anyone -- not the artists nor the consumers. They do their best to stab both in the backs.
-Chris
*I realize that as with any company or group of companies, the independants would eventually consolidate and become the new *majors*. However, I believe that in the time it would take for this to occur, music distribution models would be radically changed since the old model(s) proved to inadequate. This would include online distribution methods--that at current are IMO a bad value(Itunes, etc.) and provide a poor product(DRM).
Quote:
Originally Posted by slmcdonald7
Rob, I have to disagree with you. Wal Mart is by far the largest retail chain in the US (World?), and they use this power to muscle their way to the lowest prices possible, with little to no regard to what the market really demands. Selling products for less than they are worth is good for Wal Mart as it allows them to maintain their position as the 'top banana' of retailers, but it is bad for the overall health of the economy.
Check out this article by Fast Company , it illustrates this nicely. It's an interesting read.
Personally, I shop at Wal Mart only for basic necessities and only because I'm operating on a student's budget. As soon as I start making any kind of money, it's adios Wally World for me.
I don't see why some of you guy are bashing Wal-Mart, it's a great place.
Open 24 hours
Low Prices
They have virturally everything you could want
Usually have quality stuff
Now I will agree that I don't buy music there as often as I go to a dedicated music story, but that's only because of more selection. I don't really have a problem with the editing of their CD's as I usually buy Country, Christian, and non-parental advisory Rock.
Other than that, Wal-Mart is a great store.
Paul
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Originally Posted by Mudcat
People if you want maximum bass response, I mean bass that really ressonates throughtout the house, pull my finger.
Wal-Mart Battling for $10 CDs
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