Has Wal-Mart Destroyed Music?

I have a hate/hate relationship with Wal-Mart. I mean, I boycotted the store for *years.* As the price of everything in this world continues to rise, I found myself breaking down and giving in to the world's largest retailer. I still make it policy to shop at Wal-Mart on rare occasions. One thing I've never compromised is my refusal to buy music at Wal-Mart. You read that correct: I never buy music at Wal-Mart. This means I don't own the new AC/DC album and I won't I guess. Wal-Mart largely censors artists and I think this is a load of bullshit. I also think it's bullshit that so many artists (like AC/DC and Guns n' Roses) are going to exclusive deals with places like Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

Anyway, SIXX: AM recently did a commercial pimping the joys of Wal-Mart music. The pitch is for Motley Crue's Saints of Los Angeles and the song playing is "Mutherfucker of the Year." I get that Motley chose that song as the second single form their new album, but give me a break. The song is 100% edited when purchased at Wal-Mart! To me, there is zero point in listening to edited music. It's not what the artist intended - or performed. Maybe I'm being overly picky on this Sunday afternoon, but the whole thing just seems absurd to me. Watch the commercial below.

Comments

[r0ck0n]

Theres even more "zero-point" in listening to music with profanity in its title. I saw the edited version o MF on VH1. They're basically just singing that they're the "mother...of the year." which made me laugh pretty hard, actually.

My Walmart doesn't really sell music anyway. it only carries three genres: rap,latin pop, and country. yup. good selection.I assume this is a regional thing. Maybe yours is better.

[r0ck0n]

*edit* I think what I meant to say was listeining to EDITED versions of music with profanity in its title...sry

[Troy]

Edited music is almost as lame as edited/approved blog posts...

[Troy]

Which I see you are no longer doing....my apologies.

[motleycrue666]

yeah i agree but they do sell good music at cheap prices.

[Rob Rockitt, HardRockHideout.com]

Several years ago, I purchased the Motley Crue CD Generation Swine from Walmart. Their is one song on the CD, where a few FBombs are let out. On this song, Walmart beeped the profanities out. Needless to say, I took the CD back, and never bought music from them since.

Allyson, if you want to buy AC/DC's Black Ice, which I highly recommend, you can now buy it from Amazon.com. So much for Walmarts exlusive on this one.

[Todd]

The music industry is interesting to me. I'm a business owner and in trying times like the rest of us. One of the cardinal rules in all of business is make it easy for the consumer to spend money. I think these exclusives, which apparently seem to go well for the artist, I think will end up biting the industry. At this point, it's tough to stop the illegal downloading. But, when they make demands on "where" we have to buy things, I think, like most other things people will take shortcuts (illegal downloading, in this case) to make it easier. In this case, none of us have to drive anywhere to get to our internet. For me to buy Axl n Roses next week, I have to drive 60 miles one way to Best Buy. I also live in a town without a Wal-Mart (suppose to be getting one soon...), so again I'd have to travel.

On the positive note, it looks as though the success of Ac/dC are going to get us new material from Kiss.

What's best for everyone, I think, would be what Metallica did and put the CD with their ticket on a presale. I think it's win/win for everyone. Perhaps, maybe artists could even put out special editions, which again, might deter people from the illegal downloads.

[don]

man, what everybody forgets is that instead of "making" people shop at a particular place what he artists are doing is making the best deal for them. believe it or not they need to make money doing this. when walmart does an exclusive they give the band a lot more money than a normal record/distribution deal would. they pre-order a large amount and keep them no matter what. that is guaranteed money for the artist. these cd's will not be returned to a record label if they aren't sold. from the band's point of view this is a great deal for them.

as for it no longer being an exclusive deal, well look at the bigger picture. they sold over a million copies in 2 weeks. walmart also put up displays and sold a ton of older ac/dc releases, tshirts, etc. they sold so much in fact that if they were new releases that would have been in billboard's top 200, probably all in the top 50 or less. sounds like a good thing for the band.

normally i don't buy music at walmart but yes i proudly did buy "black rain." if you don't want to that's your choice. you could always buy it from ac/dc's website and now apparently from amazon (which i'm sure was always a part of the deal). i really don't think this was unplanned or a surprise for walmart. it would have to have been agreed upon and in the contract. to think otherwise is ludicrous. what i find funny is that so many people on this board gripe about things saying how important it is to support music and buy cd's, don't download blah, blah, blah. then a band goes out and makes the best deal for themselves and now people gripe about that too. you can't have it both ways. these bands don't owe us anything personally except for having good music on their cd. that's it. if you don't like it you don't have to, but you do have to deal with it. once again it's late so goodbye.

[Valentine]

I just refuse to shop at Wal Mart unless it's an absolute emergency... Like Target or Kmart is closed... hell, I'd shop at a farm implement store before I'd shop at Walmart.

[Rob Rockitt]

I actually bought my copy of Black Ice off of the AC/DC website. They had a pretty good deal packaging the CD, with the No Bull DVD.

[Rock guy]

Walmart is only in it for themselves. They are discriminatory. There is some fantastic rock albums still being created by new and older artists but Walmart is only catering to the biggest names, and those biggest name artists aren't hurting financially. This is a Walmart thing, and I won't shop there.