So AC/DC, the scourge of the religious right in the U.S. and conservative parents everywhere, with albums such as Highway to Hell and Back to Black, have struck an exclusive deal with WalMart in the U.S. to distribute their music…and some of their hardcore fans are either furious or in shock. 

The issue of WalMart’s stringent music policy is not a small one, but I will deal with that elsewhere.

Let’s not get all worked up on this one though. AC/DC have never to my belief taken any big moral stand against the corporate establishment. They have sold millions of albums and made themselves and the label rich. To my knowledge, they have not flown to Darfur or spoken out against gun running. I don’t think they are anti-fur. They just want to play rock n roll.

Their lyrics are not a rallying call for revolution either. I am no AC/DC specialist, but a quick read of their lyrics includes one about getting beaten up by the girlfriend, one tying the girlfriend to the railway tracks, one about their girlfriend overdosing. They might say that their songs focuses on the personal relationships between man and woman and ‘good ol Rock n Roll’. Some people might find some of the lyrics offensive or uncomfortable, others just wanna rock and sing along without reading much into the lyrics. Mind you, Walmart might approve of their commitment to monogamy (Girl’s Got Rhythm).

Those fans up in arms about ACDC ’selling out’ is an interesting position for them to take. It seems the fans are ok to sing along with the band to href=”http://members.tripod.com/acdcwillie/highway.htm”>’Go Down‘ and ‘Night Prowler’ but not ok to let AC/DC secure their pension? 

Some bands start as revolutionaries then move to the right. Others flip-flop from one issue to another. Others just play music and keep their views to themselves. Not every artist is a revolutionary, not every artist has a high moral code on everything they do.

Now that artists are looking for new ways to distribute and market their music directly, there is no label to hide behind. They have to show their colours. Their fans will find out where they stand - and if it important to the fans, then they will react, and act, accordingly.

Artists now have to be clear where they draw the line. Radiohead and ACDC draw their own lines. One artist we know turned down a seven figure deal wit a brand, because the holding company is involved in arms trading. That artist draws the line very clearly. It is the artist’s choice. Yet the smart artists are also highly aware of the impact on their fanbase of any decision they take. Whether it is taking music to a new direction (Electric Bob Dylan, Christian Bob Dylan, ‘Before and After Martin Hamnett’ Joy Division) or signing up with WalMart, the artist takes the risk of losing fans. They also take the risk of gaining new ones.

AC/DC have made their choice. Maybe is is only about the money. If their fanbase collapses in the U.S. then they know the risk was too high. Somehow, I get the impression they have done their homework on this one.

However, Bob Lefsetz doesn’t seem to think so. He certainly is not happy. First, he mentions that 3 million copies of the Eagles album were shifted through Wal-Mart with no-one noticing. Three million people bought it, I think someone noticed. He suggests that these purchases were an impulse buy. Proof that it was purely down to impulse? None. I agree that supermarket shoppers make decisions on impulse at times. Supermarkets are experts at getting people to buy stuff they don’t need. Yet, shoppers in supermarkets make decisions for different reasons - their mood, time pressure, impulse, product positioning in aisles, shelf position and state of mind all affect the decision. However, to assume that all 3 million units were down to impulse purchasers is breathtaking in it’s naivety. The Eagles were never a ground-breaking act. They took what was a vibrant west coast sound in the 70s and packaged it up for the mass market. So it could make perfect sense from a consumer targeting perspective for The Eagles. A proportion of shoppers at Wal-Mart could be either those who bought Hotel California first time round or remember their parents singing along to it, or it could have been a gift purchase…or they might have liked the pretty picture on the cover.

On the one hand he seems to throw all Wal-Mart shoppers into the same trolley, then he champions the cause of the young fan who cannot get to the Wal-Mart store or cannot download it. On the first point, won’t the young fan just ask their mum/dad to buy it for them when she/her shops?

He is also stunned that AC/DC do not understand that the world is not about the album CD any more, and that it is about customer sampling digitally. He clearly is a fan of theirs and thinks they are making a big mistake. I agree wholeheartedly with him that musicians have to have a digital platform allow people to sample the music. Just one thing though, digital is global, and WalMart distribution deal is only for the U.S. Unless I am very much mistaken and unless a Chinese government style clampdown by Wal-Mart is underway, won’t the American kids will be able to find it online legally?

Maybe the hardcore AC/DC fans who have problems with this deal, but they could look at it this way: Imagine some soccer mom buying a WalMart AC/DC CD, then later getting into ‘Let There Be Rock’ as she heads off to pick up her 2.2 kids. Wouldn’t that be undermining the very fabric of society in one step?

Couldn’t that be AC/DC’s legacy to the RocknRoll revolution? 

I leave you all with something to cheer you up…Celine Dion and Anastacia doing a cover of AC/DCs All Night Long…

Some might find this joyful, some painful to watch…

Just wait for the moment when Celine says to Anastasia “Come on Girlfriend, shook me…”

First of all, I love FACT magazine. Definitely one of the most interesting magazines in the U.K.

The latest issue is not impressed with the UK clothes retail chain TopShop and NME the (once iconic) music magazine.

Louise Brailey spotted a recent TopMan Window display with three mannequins in the window, each representing a different ‘indie’ style. To help the indie fans chose the right ‘look’, TopShop have also provided three photos of an indie ‘hero’. The three are Pete Doherty, The Kooks and Noel Fielding (a UK comedian it seems). Lots possibly wrong with this (can’t they do better than Pete Doherty or Noel Fielding).

And she is right to draw attention to how brands can get it wrong when they appropriate music for commercial purposes.

However, not everyone has the confidence to chose their own look. Many of us have always wanted help. Once upon a time album covers, Music shows on TV and spectacular imagery in magazines such as NME and Sounds would help give pointers to people in terms of how to create their own look. The fact that some people turn to shop windows for inspiration is not in itself such a bad thing.

Louise is most put out that the NME has put it’s name to this, selling it’s soul in the process. Fair point, if NME is still the great voice of counter-culture music. Yet it is not and hasn’t been for years. Anything more than one paragraph on any chosen topic seems a bit much for the NME these days. Great music journalists of today (and there are some fantastic ones out there) would be unlikely to find comfort in writing for NME. Photos of a night out or pretty people at a festival seems to take priority over decent music journalism.

One note of caution though for FACT.  FACT:25 carries two  Advertisement Features, one on Shoreditch getting free Wi-Fi thanks to BT and FON and the other for the excellent Red Bull Academy. At first, both features come across as a piece of editorial, yet in the top corner of each piece, a very small header ‘advertisement feature’ is written. A little confusing. Let’s hope that things are made a little more clearer to their readers in the future!

One of the big problems we all have when we go into a music store to browse, be it in the high street or online, is what do we want to buy? For many of us it might be what fits with our mood at the time. Music stores are generally rubbish at trying to provide this sort of help, especially traditional high street music retailers. Some stores are racked in broad genres that are so broad they are useless (ABBA next to AC/DC), while others go so niche only trainspotters stand a chance of deciphering what goes where.

Music plays to our emotions, so why do retailers so often ignore them? Especially as music can be really functional; great to drive to, great to dance to, good to have a little cry to, music to lie on a beach to, or possibly provide the perfect background to your next dinner party (that’ll be your chillout compilation then). Maybe retailers could take a leaf out of a certain UK supermarket’s book (who really didn’t like me taking a picture of their display) and suggest products to suit every mood, or as in this case a wine to go with different types of food. Shame they didn’t rack some spicy music to go with the food and wine ideas though…

So have Starbucks given up on music or are they just refocusing their attention?

When it was announced this week that they were to pull out of their record label Hear Music and hand over this business to their partners the Concord Music Group, an obvious reaction was ‘So what went wrong?’

This news was further compounded when it was announced that the entertainment division was to be put under control of the Chief Technology Officer Chris Bruzzo…geeks in charge of creative development? Surely this means that the whole Hear Music exercise has been a failure?

Well, it hasn’t been a failure in my view. For many of the classic artists, it has worked. First Ray Charles sells over 5million units. Paul McCartney sold more than he could have imagined. Meanwhile, Hear Music tempted Joni Mitchell to record again - which in my book is worth the whole exercise in itself. It also started to offer an alternative distribution and marketing solution for many other artists like the immensely talented and underrated Sia.

Has it been a success for Starbucks customers? Well, from a sonic retail perspective, Starbucks can teach many other retailers how to think about the effect of sound on a consumer’s experience in-store (See posts passim).

Starbucks have a head start on other brands in terms of understanding the power of music in the consumer’s connection with their business. Yet, the news clearly suggests that all is not well at Starbucks. So what can we make of the changes?

Shifting away from CD to digital is good business sense, though making the assumption that the CD is completely dead for the Starbucks consumer is a huge one. There are over 6000 options of coffee in Starbucks, so having a choice of formats for the music - “CD or download madam?” - is not a bad idea.

The bigger challenge for the new head of the entertainment division is how to ensure that the experience in-store is not undermined by this move. The danger is that a shift to digital entertainment will leave the coffee-house experience somewhat muted.

One hopes that Starbucks does not retreat, turn it’s music commitment into yet another music download site and forget that sonic branding is felt most of all by their customers in-store. They may be right to consider promoting books in-store (in fact this makes immense sense), yet the power of music could be better harnessed by brands, Starbucks included.

A thought for Starbucks:
Ever thought about getting local artists to play in-store, so supporting local art, giving something fresh to the customers and positioning yourself as the ‘local coffee house’ at the same time? It means acting small, not acting big.

Just came across an interesting article in Business Week It reiterates that, in the face of the online shopping onslaught, bricks and mortar music retailers are suffering. However, it also highlights the green shoots of online success that some smaller independent music retailers are experiencing.  I’m with them on this.

Sites such as Piccadilly Records, Boomkat (both Manchester UK) and Dusty Groove (U.S.) are fantastic. These are quality retailers of music…small is really beautiful

We are witnessing so many young people finding their own path in creating, distributing and marketing their own music. The Punk ethic gone global so to speak. Meanwhile established artists are also finding their own way, be it Simply Red, Paul McCartney or Prince. Some are of the opinion that such artists are past their prime, so have no choice but to find alternatives to the record label support. As Naresh Ramchandani suggested:

Prince is doing what every artist formerly known as good has had to do. He's selling out, and it's never pretty.

However, I think he misses the point. Prince is not formally good. Joni Mitchell is not formally good. Music is about sharing with a community, about story-telling, about sharing life experiences, about representing the community. That is what these artists still do in their own way. These artists are exploring new directions of communicating with their community. They are glorious in their bravery, and should be heralded for trying. Anyone in the music world, be they label, manager or artist, should be cheered for trying new things. If no-one takes risks, the music industry will continue to struggle. Critical to risk-taking is understanding your audience. John Sinclair might not have had all the answers in the 60s, but his view that music binds communities together was bang on. By better understanding the community that the artist connects with will help the artist and their representatives. Some artists take risks and benefit, others are less brave. Part of the bravery of trying something different and exploring their relationship with their community is understanding HOW the artist connects. Over the last few decades, this connection has been driven by the recorded song. As my friend (and honorary citizen) Gauti Sigthorssen pointed out, are we not merely reverting back to a time when the live experience was more important, before vinyl transferred the communal experience of music into a commodity? Many people are looking for a greater emotional connection with artists, not just a throwaway flirtation. The sense of community is stronger than ever. Artists (and brands) that understand their community are the brave ones.

Well, a recent visit to a London Starbucks (Hammersmith Tube) gave me a little surprise. We all now know of the tie-up with Paul McCartney and the fact that they have shifted a fair few of his recent release. Good news for all. In store now the price has dropped to £5.99 which suggests that they are now looking to clear out the release for the next artist. Fair enough. However, I would make one suggestion to Starbucks. Having gone to all the trouble of signing up such a big name as Paul McCartney, it might be best not to be playing John Lennon tunes in store. The shock of hearing 'Woman' made me almost choke on my muffin…just imagine (no pun intended) if Sir Macca heard about this.

Been reading a lot of music books recently.

This one is for any fan of reggae music of the 70s. Bass Culture is brilliantly researched and packed full of insights by Lloyd Bradley

So well written in fact that, as I read it I noted the tunes I had to buy.

Thanks to Selectors Music Emporium, 100b Brixton Hill also for helping to me to part with my money. What a shop!! (more on them later…)

It was another sad day for music retailing last week as the very fine Fopp chain of some 80 stores went into the hands of the receivers. While Tesco, one of the biggest music retailers in the UK, also announced it was not making any money out of CD’s, with chief exec, Terry Leahy, predicting that the record business will “disappear in its current form”. So what sort of future does music retailing have in the UK? Rough Trade, one of the most respected independent retailers with two stores in London, think they have the answer. Later this month they will open the doors of a new 5000 square metre store in Brick Lane in the east of London, which as reported in the Sunday Times will include a top-of-the-range PA system and bespoke furniture, all designed by one of Britain’s top architects. So can Rough Trade turn their new store into a destination, via a coffee shop, free wi-fi access and regular free instore gigs? And it’s not just the forward-thinking independent stores trying to change their retail offering. HMV, the UK’s biggest music retailer, are also planning to turn their stores into more experiential destinations, 'with customers of the future sipping smoothies at “refreshment hubs” while using instore computers to play games, surf the internet and download music”'. What both HMV and Rough Trade are trying to do is get the music experience back into the entertainment retail space. Although I’ve spent a good part of the last 35 years hanging out in record stores, it’s sad to report that many music stores have become soulless retail experiences, more akin to the supermarkets who have been instrumental in changing the landscape of music retailing in the UK. But is this attempt to take the model of the ‘Nike Town’-style retail experience too little too late to save our high street music retailers? Or will it be the music specialists, like Rough Trade, who offer customers good quality service, and those all important recommendations, in a more ‘experiential’ environment, the ones that will survive under the continued onslaught from the supermarkets and online retailers? Let's hope so.

There has been an enormous amount of coverage on the Starbucks/McCartney tie-up. At the Venice Festival of Media, Pete Jenner suggested that Paul McCartney would have been better tying up with Saga Holidays than Starbucks. This may be a fair comment if McCartney wanted to target his new release to what some might feel is his existing and ageing core audience. However, he might have felt that the Starbucks environment offers him a chance to take his light music to a younger audience. We will find out in the near future whether his bet has paid off, but we can't help but take our hats off to him for trying a new avenue. What has he got to lose? As for Starbucks, they are not holding back on this release. When they officially released the latest Paul McCartney album a couple fo weeks ago, the first project on its Hear Music label, the coffee retail giant played the album nonstop, all day long, at its 10,000 shops worldwide. With hundreds of thousands of consumers purchasing their daily java from the chain each day, Starbucks is certainly betting that the audio blitz will drive consumer interest and album sales. But not because they’ve been pummeled into purchasing submission by the heavy rotation in-stores. No, what this strategy demonstrates is a good piece of music PR. The amusing media angle (i.e. playing the album non-stop), the tongue-in-cheek play on the album’s title, Memory Almost Full: the story has managed to generate a significant amount of press coverage this week. However, at a time where most brands are grappling with a move away from the PUSH model of marketing towards a more experiential model, one questions whether the audio blitz has been the right way to encourage the latte drinkers to consider new music from the old master. A little of the ingenuity that goes into creating their coffees flavours would have been welcomed in their communications strategy… All in all, a missed opportunity to do a little more for the HEAR Music label we think.