How underground are you? i.e. walmart

[tedvanfrehley]

I just read an interesting article in the new Rolling Stone magazine. Has John Stewart on the cover, in case you care. At any rate, there was an article about how WALMART is demanding that the record companies lower their prices so that they can now start selling almost all cd's at the set low price of $9.72. The record companies are saying that this is KILLING the music business but that a major label act has virtually no chance of selling a million plus without the help of Walmart...that not keeping Walmart happy can hurt business overall. This is the nutshell version.

WALMART claims, on the other hand, that the record companies only charge as much as they do because they CAN...and not because they need to charge that amount to make any real profit.

Now...I can see both sides...and then some. On one hand, I do think the idea of paying $9.72 for a cd kicks some serious ass. I think this price would be excellent, and I'm sure there are a lot of new bands I'd give a chance to at that price that I may not at $17.99 or higher........But the downside is that Walmart just does not have the selection that music stores, especially indie stores, have. But on the business side...Walmart does kill small business. I am a sales rep for an oil company, and one of the most frequently asked questions from a customer is, "well why shouldn't I just go to Walmart and buy oil? It's cheaper"? so I imagine a record store owner going through the same woes....

I guess I just wonder what you all think. If Walmart had the selection, would you buy cd's there for $9.72 or would you still go to the mall or your favorite local independent record store and buy the same disc for five to ten bucks more? ($14.99 to $19.99)

I must say that I'm guilty of buying a cd at Walmart a time or two...but I still love to go in the real record stores and hunt around.....

whattaya think????

maybe I'm just feeling political since it's almost election day?

 

[Lies and Perfidy]

I'd order from The End, or go to a local record store. Fuck Walmart, and fuck it hard. You wanna talk about Evil Corporations? They're the fucking poster boys.

 

[Psychonaut]

I buy all my music online. Online distros usually get it faster because they get them when they're released in Europe. As many times as I've been in Wal Mart, I have yet to browse through their CDs. DVDs, on the other hand, I buy from there because they are cheaper.

 

[Wyvern]

I'd order from The End, or go to a local record store. Fuck Walmart, and fuck it hard. You wanna talk about Evil Corporations? They're the fucking poster boys.

Agree on all counts with you. I saw Wal Mart engulfing small business while treating their personnel like shit. Damn even K-Mart kneel before them. And that in only three years in a small town.

Of course as consumers we all love CDs at $9.72. But since the labels will never lost money they will pass the burden to the band cutting their profits. So in the end a lot of bands will be forced to dissapear because it would not be profitable anymore.

On the other hand do we seriously think that even if the labels budge, and Wal Mart cut down prices they are going to put on their shelves a lot of the acts we want today? I don't think so.

Purchase on line (plus some especializes stores around the planet) is IMO the last reduct of freedom to obtain metal as we want, at reasonable prices.

 

[AntonCrowley_16]

Ive never bought a cd from Wal-Mart in my life. Anything Id want is edited, besides Black Sabbath, The Doors, Pink Floyd, etc. and I didnt get them from their either. lol

 

[Thraxz]

Sure I would. That will never, ever, happen though. They will never have an album I want. I guess since their cd's are editted you SHOULD pay $10... two thirds price for 2/3s the music.

 

[carnut]

Price is nice but I'm pretty sure they won't store the underground stuff we really like.

 

[sixxswine]

Like I stated, in a previous thread, I buy from my friend who owns a shop. That's about 80% of the time, if I get the discs on release date, he gets a break & that gets passed along to me. The End records isn't a bad place to buy stuff either, but they are limited in what the carry. They are mainly underground metal. Wal-Mart won't ever carry anything that is not edited. All their rap stuff is edited & I can see why kids that like the genre don't buy their records there. Would you want to buy a movie that has selected scenes taken out? It would be stupid. Even certain album covers have been edited, the one that comes to mind is the Drowning Pool record, that came out a number of months ago. It just has porno chcik on the cover in a bathing suit.
How is that offensive? You could place a sticker over the ares of the cover, but to request an alternate? And the label to sell records had to comply. I personally would have respected them more if they gave Wally World the finger. On the other hand, if you were to head to Wally & look for a disc on the classic rock end of things you would score a great deal. I think I saw the Best of Tesla for sale there for like $7.88!
If you didn't have the record, it's a steal. Probably less that you'd find it used. I also like checking out Half.com, Ebay.Com, SecondSpin.com & Spun.Com .
Wal-Mart isn't the corporate power house that they were a decade ago & they can suggest, what they want, but in the end, they will not get what they want.
K-Mart was using the same distributor as Wal-Wart until they filed for protection from bankruptcy. They found that they were losing customers, because they didn't sell "uncensored" titles... Imagine that? It doesn't take a rocket scientist, to know this. The 15-25 demographic has buying power that can't be ignored & they were smart enough to see this. It would be interesting to find out how much it would cost a label like Warner Brothers to crank out one disc. It's probably like $1.00, then they ship their copies to a distributor, Who probably pay like $8.00 per copy. Then they offer the copy to local mom & pop stores fro $11.98, who would then sell them to customers for $15.98. The mom & pop shops don't make that much dough out of the new titles, $3-$4 is all. Now a store like Tower Records gets a huge break, because they buy in bulk of 25's!!!!
Same with like a Wally World, but you're buying an inferior copy, because it's edited!
And you wonder why kids, download a copy from the internet? If Wally World is all you have in town, you have no car, you have a few bucks in your pocket & you can't get what you want...
I can't say I would blame them.
The music industry in partially to blame for their woes.

 

[AntonCrowley_16]

I get all my cds from Circuit City....the cds their cost the same as walmart does but their not edited. or Sound Exchange......and if neither of them have it, which is very doubtful, i get it from soulseek.

 

[wdiv]

If the artist is big enough of a name to get sold at Walmart, then I'm not worried about them starving. Walmart's only got the big name titles that are making the record companies rich. So Walmart does have the leverage to push the record company prices down. It's rediculous that CDs cost more than DVDs!

How come Walmart will sell unedited R-rated movies, but only sells edited CDs? Makes no sense.

 

[wdiv]

I thought record piracy & mp3s were "killing" the record business? The Walmart claim sounds like bullshit to me....

 

[Wyvern]

What is this edited CD business? I guess I catch the concept but is utterly IDIOTIC. So they have to edit these songs if there's any hard profanity, or better yet words like: war, death, Satan, kill, fight, rape, blood have to be erased?

I guess it'll make a very interesting version of a Cannibal Corpse album...an instrumental one

 

[tedvanfrehley]

Well, thank you all for the replies...but here's my point:

Obviously Walmart won't carry the explicit stuff....they edit it or won't carry it at all.

HOWEVER....

Let's say you're looking for a new copy of METALLICA's RIDE THE LIGHTNING. You are either new to the band, or you're replacing your worn out copy...whatever...you just want the disc.

Say Walmart has it for $9.72
FYE or Sam Goody in the mall has it for $19.99
Your local indie store has it for $15.88
let's leave the internet off the chart for now...just comparing stores...
you can see why a lot of folks would give their hard earned dough to Walmart. I have done it in the past...but I always feel a little bit better if I bite the bullet, spend a little more and support my locally owned music store...that's my point. It's easy to see how the public would wanna buy from walmart if they had the selection and unedited content.