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Re: New article talking CD and Black Ice
http://www.nashvillescene.com/2009-01-2 … the-money/
Interestingly someone is claiming Axl was working on the music up to a month before the album was released.
I thought as soon as I heard the whole album some songs reeked of last minute tinkering. I remember a former engineer claiming that Axl was tinkering with Oh My God up to the night before it was handed over as well.
Re: New article talking CD and Black Ice
for those who dont wanna click the link
AC/DC's exclusive deal with Wal-Mart was all about the money
By Phil Freeman
Published on January 28, 2009 at 10:10amBlack Ice, the first AC/DC studio album in eight years, was one of rock's biggest success stories in 2008. Selling nearly 800,000 copies in its first week and staying in the Billboard 200 since, it hasn't just revived the band's career—it's been one of the most successful examples of an emerging business model: the store exclusive. Black Ice is only for sale at Wal-Mart stores in the U.S.
Subject(s):
Playing Saturday, 31st at The Sommet CenterThe Australian band's deal is more elaborate than similar arrangements, though, and it's somewhat more controversial. When the Eagles released Long Road out of Eden in 2007, they were catering to moms and dads who remembered the band's '70s hits (and were probably listening to mainstream country, itself heavily influenced by the Eagles' sound). Journey was selling new vocalist Arnel Pineda with Revelation, a two-CD/one-DVD set featuring live footage, re-recorded classics and 11 new songs, all for only $11.88. In each case, the Wal-Mart deal seemed like a logical move—the customer base was aging and unhip, so an appeal based on convenience and price was the way to go.But was AC/DC in that camp? If we're being honest, yeah. The hard rock gods' last mega-success was 1980's Back in Black, an album that continues to sell and keeps the band a classic rock radio staple. But AC/DC is not a trendsetting, pathbreaking outfit. It keeps its fans happy by not changing the formula, by sticking to big riffs and shout-along choruses. A new AC/DC album hasn't been an event in 20 years. So what were they gonna do? Chase blog hype? Suck up to Pitchfork? Of course not. The only strategy that made sense was to go after suburban moms and dads—folks who still rock out, albeit in the car while driving the kids to school, and who won't be heading to a record store anytime soon but might well spot a sign in a Wal-Mart and say, "Hey, new AC/DC album! Cool!" and throw one in the cart.
For the band, it was all about loyalty. As vocalist Brian Johnson told Metal Edge magazine, "Wal-Marts have always carried our full catalog on their shelves, whereas other stores have just got the biggie selling ones." He also cited the chain's ability to keep prices low, saying, "That's it, that's the bottom line. It's five dollars cheaper."
Wal-Mart, for its part, went all-out in promoting the disc, and the band as a brand. According to independent music marketing executive Bob Chiappardi, who was involved in the strategy, "it was an encompassing thing...they put a pop-up store in the men's department in all the Wal-Marts, at the entrance they had posters [and] postering throughout the store, they had stand-up racks in the aisles approaching the men's department, and then they had displays in the CD department, a whole top row on the VH-1 rack. Not only back catalog, but video games, the AC/DC version of Rock Band, and T-shirts."
The band, in turn, employed all the standard promotional strategies for a new album—they made a video for first single "Rock N' Roll Train," submitted to interviews, and embarked on a massive world tour. Result? Black Ice (which is fantastic, by the way) topped the charts, the concerts sold out—and the band was back, any lingering image controversy surrounding its collaboration with Wal-Mart washed away on a flood tide of cash.
But what about the year's other big exclusive deal—Guns N' Roses' release of Chinese Democracy through Best Buy? In many ways, it was something of an apples-and-oranges comparison. Wal-Mart is a much larger chain than Best Buy, and threw itself behind its chosen album much more vigorously. BB, which significantly reduced the amount of floor space devoted to music in 2008, offered no store-within-a-store, merely putting the album on cardboard towers on the sales floor, which were dwarfed in many outlets by similar displays advertising the complete Sopranos on DVD.
But according to a marketing executive familiar with the deal, this minimalist-seeming strategy was all that was arranged up front: "They're kinda just doing what they can do with what they've got. The only thing [Guns N' Roses] had to deliver was a video and the record." (The video will be for the second single, "Better," and should be out sometime soon.)
According to industry scuttlebutt, the negotiations for the Best Buy deal were frantic and down to the wire. "These guys didn't have finished music until a month before," says one source. "It was insane. In all honesty, Axl was working on everything – the art, everything—right to the end." Indeed, in a web chat on a Guns N' Roses fan site, Rose (manager Andy Gould later confirmed that it was really him) stated that there were plans for multiple covers which may emerge in the future, that he has a favorite, and it's not the one currently in stores.
There are rumors of a Guns N' Roses tour this year. And hell, Axl might even deign to submit to an interview. But thus far, Chinese Democracy sales have been disappointing: Fewer than half of the 1.3 million copies Best Buy took on have departed their warehouses.
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