Gotta love these guys… from NME:
AC/DC have topped the charts in 29 countries with their new album ‘Black Ice’.
The veteran Australian rockers’ new album, which was released globally on October 20, has topped the charts in countries including the US, UK, Germany, Canada, France, Argentina, Japan, Australia, Belgium, Finland, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.
‘Black Ice’ has sold more than 780,000 copies in the US alone, despite the fact that it is being sold exclusively at Walmart, Sam’s Club, and on the band’s website.
This is only the second time the band has topped the US chart in their three-decade-long career. Their first was in 1981 with ‘For Those About To Rock We Salute You’.
AC/DC are set to kick off their world tour tonight (October 28) in Pennsylvania, as previously reported.
Apparently the wheels are in motion for Chinese Democracy to be released exclusively at one retail location. At this point does anybody care anymore? I guess at least it means it must be coming out soon? Read more from Reuters:
The June leak of nine allegedly “mastered, finished” tracks from Guns N’ Roses’ long-delayed “Chinese Democracy” spurred a renewed round of speculation about whether the Axl Rose-led band will finally release the 14-years-in-the-making album.
But some concrete signs are finally emerging that the album’s release could be imminent. That’s because, according to sources, negotiations are under way for “Chinese Democracy” to come out as an exclusive at one of the big-box retailers — either Wal-Mart or Best Buy.
Negotiations are also ongoing for conventional record company distribution, another source said.
Guns N’ Roses is now managed by Irving Azoff’s Front Line Management, and Azoff is a well-known proponent of issuing albums exclusively through retailers. He released the Eagles’ “Long Road Out of Eden” through Wal-Mart, much to the chagrin of other merchants.
It’s unclear who initiated the Guns N’ Roses exclusive negotiations — Front Line or Interscope, the band’s label.
Representatives at Front Line and Interscope with knowledge of the situation couldn’t be reached for comment. A Wal-Mart representative said the chain couldn’t confirm this fall’s exclusive album offerings. Best Buy representatives couldn’t be reached for comment.
from BusinessWeek.com:
Apple Inc.’s online iTunes music store is now the number-two music retailer in the U.S. behind Wal-Mart Stores Inc. as measured by unit volume, market researcher NPD Group said Tuesday.
NPD said that iTunes moved into second place due to the amount of music it sold during 2007, which was based on a 12-track CD equivalency for song downloads.
The market researcher began tracking music sold stateside during the middle of 2006. In the fourth quarter of that year, Best Buy Co. took second place behind Wal-Mart, while Target Corp. took third place and Apple’s iTunes store fourth place, NPD analyst Russ Crupnick said.
For the full year 2007, Best Buy came in third and Target fourth, he said.
Crupnick called Apple’s move to the number-two spot “fairly understandable given the pressure that’s been on CDs and the almost 50-percent growth in digital downloading in the past year.”
About 10 percent of music acquired in the U.S. was through legal downloads in 2007, and consumers who bought digital music legally through pay-to-download Web sites grew by 5 million to 29 million in 2007, NPD said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, an estimated 1 million consumers did not buy CDs in 2007, and 48 percent of U.S. teenagers didn’t buy any CDs during the year, up from 38 percent in the year before, according to NPD data.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if we see the same things continuing into 2008 because what our research is showing is that teens are continuing to check out on the CD,” Crupnick said.
NPD also said that the amount of music consumers bought in the U.S. rose 6 percent in 2007, though the decline in CD sales and increase in legal digital download sales still led to a 10 percent overall decrease in music spending.
Apple shares fell $2.55, or 2.1 percent, to $117.19 in morning trading, while Wal-Mart shares rose 80 cents to $51.13.
PLAY
