Black Friday Posts Poor Numbers For Record Industry

For retailers across the nation, the Friday following Thanksgiving, commonly referred to as 'Black Friday', is one of the biggest shopping days of the year. For the record industry however, these big sales failed to materialize. Back in September, we reported on the insane amount of new releases by big artists that were due out in the fourth quarter and questioned whether the sheer number would make up for lower sales. The answer seems to be no.

Billboard reports that albums sales were down somewhere from 10% to 30% as the weeks big releases didn't match expectations. Kanye West's masterpiece, 808s and Heartbreak, was expected to shift anywhere from 700,000-975,000 copies but could only manage 450,000 copies sold. Meanwhile, Guns N' Roses ridiculously highly anticipated Chinese Democracy crashed the Dr. Pepper website but only sold 250,000-260,000 copies.

At the box office, the lame holiday "comedy" about a blue state couple learning lessons from their annoying red state family, Four Christmases, earned $236 million. America, what is wrong with you? You will spend $8 to watch a lame movie once, but refuse to drop $10 at Best Buy for a CD that you can listen to for the rest of your life. Support the artist, support the record companies. It's not like Kanye West is hurting for bread, but record companies have made massive cuts the past several years. True, it's time to find a new business model, but America needs to find a new conscious and feel guilty about stealing music. Pirates.

AC/DC Invades Wal-Mart Nation

With traditional brick and mortar music retailers going out of business and big box stores reducing the space slated for CDs, some artists are looking for exclusive deals to push their product. AC/DC and Wal-Mart have teamed up to create a store-within-a-store for their new album Black Ice, which the Arkansas based retail giant will sell exclusively. The Eagles were the last band to try to Wal-Mart only option with Long Road Out Of Eden, 2007's 5th best selling album (3.1 million copies). The Eagles, however, didn't have Rock Band. AC/DC's in store promotion include their back catalog albums on sale, DVDs, t-shirts, as well as the popular rock n roll video game.

Say what you will about Wal-Mart, but they have gotten retail down to a science. Hurricane coming? Stock stores with more board games and snack foods. After the hurricane has come and gone? Beer. For a music industry in decline, the exclusive deals with retailers might be the best option. Best Buy has recently announced it will be the only store to carry Guns N' Rose's Chinese Democracy and depending how both it and Black Ice sell could signal a shift in the way music is marketed and sold. Of course, you could always just pull a Madonna and try to generate interest in your failing album by getting a high profile divorce.

Wal-Mart and AC/DC Agree: Money Talks!