Music industry insiders puzzled by HMV ad in Billboard about retail deals
20 hours ago

TORONTO — Sometimes a thank you is just a thank you, HMV Canada president Humphrey Kadaner said Tuesday, amid talk within the music industry about the company's full-page ad in Billboard magazine campaigning against so-called retail exclusives.

The ad appears in the U.S. trade magazine's current issue and is styled as a thank you letter to artists who "have recently said no to retail exclusives in Canada." The list includes AC/DC, Bryan Adams, Christina Aguilera, Genesis, John Mellencamp, the Police, Guns N' Roses and Anne Murray.

In the United States, Wal-Mart is the only store selling AC/DC's new album, "Black Ice," and Best Buy has acquired the exclusive rights to sell the long-awaited CD "Chinese Democracy" by Guns N' Roses, expected to be released in late November.

But Canadian music fans will be able to find both albums pretty much anywhere CDs are sold, Kadaner said in an interview.

"Five years ago, the first major exclusive was announced by the Rolling Stones (for the "Four Flicks" DVD) and since then we've been working hard to educate artists and record companies that Canada's (marketplace is) different and Canadian consumers don't really like these exclusives," he said.

"Now there are two major releases coming out that were announced as exclusives in the U.S. and not in Canada. And we thought it's about time we ought to let more artists and managers know we appreciate all the efforts."

While Kadaner insists the ad was simply meant to be a public thank-you note, it does allude to HMV's reputation for fighting back against artists who have signed exclusive deals with other retailers in Canada.

HMV temporarily pulled products by Alanis Morissette, Bob Dylan, Elton John and the Rolling Stones off its shelves in retaliation for retail exclusives.

Some members of the Canadian music industry expressed skepticism about the HMV ad and whether it was just a thank you or a veiled threat.

Industry watcher Larry Leblanc speculated that the ad might have been planned as a pre-emptive threat against labels considering an upcoming exclusive, given that the industry is always searching for ways to make money.

"I think (retail exclusives) are going to come back, quite frankly," said Leblanc, who publishes an industry newsletter.

"In this day and age they're looking for money under rocks essentially, anywhere there's revenue to be found."

Leblanc said HMV's ploy to boycott merchandise of artists who sign exclusives has worked well, particularly with Rolling Stones products, because the strategy got a lot of media attention and probably cost the company very little in lost revenue.

"The dirty little secret is the Rolling Stones (albums) don't sell - they didn't lose any sales because the Rolling Stones don't sell a lot of product," said Leblanc.

Tim Baker, the head buyer for Canadian chain Sunrise Records, agreed and said most of the artists who typically opt for retail exclusives do so because their prospects of good sales are uncertain.

"The majority of these bands who are doing this, how do I put this, are past their sell-by date for the most part," Baker said, although he added that AC/DC doesn't fall in that camp.

"You'll see it again with more aging acts. I think you'll probably find it's (done by) some bands that still think that they're somewhat relevant, like the Rolling Stones, when in actual fact they're probably not."

Kadaner wouldn't say who was hurt more by the lost sales after his company's past boycotts, HMV or the artists.

"We absolutely gave up sales but we believed we're in the consumer business and if we satisfy our consumers on this overall issue we don't mind losing some sales in the short term," he said.

"Do I think artists all of a sudden went broke because they weren't getting revenue from sales at HMV in Canada? No. But I just believe there is less hurt and more education in the process."

Making the AC/DC album a retail exclusive in Canada through Wal-Mart "was discussed but not seriously considered," said the company's director of corporate affairs, Kevin Groh.

Wal-Mart Canada is not fundamentally opposed to the concept of retail exclusives but chose not to go down that route in this case, Groh said.

Baker said he was also a bit puzzled by HMV's ad and wasn't sure whether to take it at face value or not.

"I'm not disagreeing with (the message), but I'm a little bit confused as to what the motivation is here," he said.

"Their motivation could very well be fairly magnanimous . . . I'm not going to say that I think there's an ulterior motive here. I just don't know."

from what i can gather, from walking into various HMV stores, throughout the London region, in recent weeks, music in general is becoming increasingly irrelevant in HMV stores.
THe amount of room afforded cd's and vinyl on the shop floors, is very small (and seems, to my eye, decreasing rapidly), in comparison to the growth and floor space given over to DVD's and Blueray.

Quote
Adrian-L
from what i can gather, from walking into various HMV stores, throughout the London region, in recent weeks, music in general is becoming increasingly irrelevant in HMV stores.
THe amount of room afforded cd's and vinyl on the shop floors, is very small (and seems, to my eye, decreasing rapidly), in comparison to the growth and floor space given over to DVD's and Blueray.

Easy solution: Release new CDs in DVD or Blu-Ray boxes.

JumpingKentFlash

.... a very cunning plan

Yes, that should work



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-10-23 12:16 by Stargroves.

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Adrian-L
from what i can gather, from walking into various HMV stores, throughout the London region, in recent weeks, music in general is becoming increasingly irrelevant in HMV stores.
THe amount of room afforded cd's and vinyl on the shop floors, is very small (and seems, to my eye, decreasing rapidly), in comparison to the growth and floor space given over to DVD's and Blueray.

..and i-tunes accessories.

I worked for HMV for many years and I can barely bring myself to walk into one these days.

As soon as they were a PLC and dictated to by shareholders, the company that I was proud to work for, slowly turned into the mess that it now is.

Whatever became of 'Nipper' the trusy HMV dog.......?!

doggie heaven

HMV are a business, responding to consumers changing desires and buying habits.
If people wish to purchase on-line (and also save money)they will.
So the shareholders will look for other means of making a profit.
They are nor a charity.
It's not rocket science really.
You don't see many watch and clock repair shops either these days.

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Adrian-L
.... a very cunning plan

But Adrian, is it as cunning as a fox, who has just been appointed Proffesor of cunning at Oxford University

Blackadder Goes Fouth, btw!

'Baldrick, you wouldn't recognize a subtle plan if it painted itself purple and danced naked on a harpsicord singing 'subtle plans are here again'.

I understand the need to change according to buyers needs, but they still ruined a great company in other ways.

I worked for a company that preached customer service like it was religion and it went completely out of the window and the company suffered as a result.

They couldn't afford to pay people for working overtime during Christmas periods but they had no problem paying for the managers to go abroad for their Christmas Preperation meetings.

My area manager even told all managers to used the phrase JFDI (Just @#$%& do it) if anyone questioned any descision made!

People would leave and not get replaced and staff were highly overworked and underpayed.

People were getting signed off with stress because the workload was so high.

I understand the need to make money, but money was the only thing that was important. More important than peoples health and welfare!
Those things should be considered too!

HMV are not the only ones, it seems to be very common over here at the moment.
I can only complain about HMV because of my first hand experience with them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-10-23 15:40 by vudicus.

I suspect that in the grand scheme of the business world, HMV is...how shall I put this...past their sell-by date.

As talked before, and reflected based on the sales of A BIGGER BANG, the globalization is in the side of the Stones. Even though they do not make the HMVs of New York or London very happy anymore, they sell quite nice in Bombay and Johannesburg. (That's at least what I've learned here, that ABB was actually, against all the local - Western - observations, a success)

But I think what strikes me in that article is once again the endless drive for maximizing the profits by the Stones. When they made that deal with FOUR LICKS they knew that even though their actual sales might be smaller worldwide or in a particular market, they will make more money. I think The Stones use this kind of tactics quite often. It looks like that their 'brand' or 'prestige' is their true product or what they have to offer - not their actual products - DVDs or CDs that are not so huge sellers by themselves. They are very clever guys in those business nogotations. But I don't think their business partners - be it EMI, Best Buy, Columbia, etc. - are stupid either - they know what they get, and having the brand of The Stones is a good thing in marketingwise, imagewise, or whateverwise.

Now a moralist point: there is something there that I don't like at all. But that is just me.

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-10-23 18:27 by Doxa.

Didn't 4 Flicks sell quite well???
As for relevence, I have Hit Paraders from '67-69 calling the RS 'losing popularity' because Satanic had sold less than its predecessors, 'Rainbow' and 'Dandelion' only hit # 14 & # 25 respectively in the US Hot 100 after a string of top ten singles. JJF, along with BB later in '68, were seen as a (the first of many)'comeback'.
Then there's the long review, I have it somewhere, calling Let It Bleed "virtually the same album" as BB, the writer noting Jagger was 'getting to be an old man at 26'.

They are still the greatest rock n roll brand in the world.

This ad's purpose was to mention the retailer in the same sentence as these famous artists to bring publicity to the retailer's brand. No more.

The content of the sentence was unimportant for that purpose.

And it worked.

This is not about the Rolling Stones or their relevance in the marketplace, but it's all and only about how advertising works.

Stones are not particularly relevant and haven't been a cultural force for a long time. Sadly,perhaps, musicians today are generally irrelevant-- generally all are seen as mere entertainment. Just like reality TV and football.

Nothing new here. We all know CD sales in general have been going down steadily for years. There are many reasons : there are lots of other things to spend your spare cash on, most new music isn't very good, illegal down-loading is rampant etc. etc. I think that the newer releases by older bands like The Eagles, The Stones, Fleetwood Mac etc. have been terrible. I wouldn't buy them either. BUT if you get a great new CD by a younger band like Green Day or even a GOOD release by a middle aged band like AC/DC then I think you can actually sell several hundred thousand units. This whole concept of CDs is on it's last legs anyway. In a few short years ALL CDs and DVDs will either be sold and or down-loaded directly from Web-sites. Then what will HMV do?

Eeeerrr HMV stores once was a great haven for rare
stuff...Japanese imports etc...Now just a pop-chart shop ..
And never trust any store where all the staff dress the same....

ROCKMAN

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Rockman
Eeeerrr HMV stores once was a great haven for rare
stuff...Japanese imports etc...Now just a pop-chart shop ..
And never trust any store where all the staff dress the same....

wise words, indeed