The Mosh Pit (11.09.07): Where Eagles Rise

Posted by Dan Haggerty on 11.09.2007

The Eagles soar to number one this week, all thanks to the music industry and Wal*Mart’s sudden cooperation at the 11th hour. The Mosh Pit smells big things afoot behind the wizard’s curtain, and is determined to see what it is. Also, Forgotten Classics go Cult and Into Eternity is in the house tonight!




Welcome to Friday's The Mosh Pit! Today's show features an introspective look at the music industry today from the perspective of distribution. Trust me, that subject is not as dry as it sounds; as it's implications on the music we love must be looked at. I've got some great metal from last year in the set list for your refined tastes, and Into Eternity is in the house to brandish their talented take on extreme prog. Finally, we go cult, as in Blue Oyster Cvlt, for the forgotten classic of the week. Yes, you need to spell cult like Cvlt to do the guys justice.

I would also like to take a moment to just jump up and down because I'm going to Chicago next April to see Kind Diamond and Kreator! Oh yea, my neck is going to hurt the next morning for sure. Damn I'm excited about that. King Diamond is headlining, of course, but I'm just as excited to see one of the three of the unholy trinity of German thrash. If I score a picture or get swag signed, you'll never hear the end of it.

Anyway, enough of the babble; it's Friday, you're in the Pit, and we got a show to do!



Tonight's Show


A fascinating aspect of news is not the news itself, but the story behind the news, the little facts or trends that led to the event that caused the news; or to quote any five year old, "Why?" Maybe I'm odd, but I tend to look at something and see it less for what it is, but more for the events that led to it and the consequences that will cause the events after it. Yea, I'm a barrel a fun with a lot of liquor in me. Think of it this way – I love a good magic trick, but even more fascinated by how they did the trick.

This materialized when I saw the breaking news on the Eagles: They take #1 on the Billboard charts when a last minute policy change allows them to be counted. The obvious big story is the Eagles victory in coming in at number one after a 28 year hiatus from recording (sans the material on the live Hell Freezes Over album). The funnier part as far as the internet music community (IMC – I call dibs on the term!) is concerned is that everyone's favorite train wreck Britney Spears has been unceremoniously dumped down to #2. But when I see this, I can't help but ask "Why?" and "How?" and more importantly "Will these effect things down the road?" Maybe it's the business manager in me, or at least the symptom of an overactive imagination.

No offence to the Eagles, and honestly I'm very happy they are doing well and getting the credit they are due, but they had no one but themselves to blame for there original lack of chart position. It's not like they signed the deal with Wal*Mart without knowing that Wally World's sales are not used in chart determination. And for the record, the band itself probably agrees with this as they haven't commented on the whole thing anyway. But they are getting the recognition and I'm cool with that. Deep down, it warms my metal heart to know a classic rock band just spanked a modern party-pop-princesses ass. In fact, someone should have done that several years ago. Rock on Eagles!

But when you look beyond the cool finish of this new car and pop the hood open, a bunch of questions come to mind. Why did Wal*Mart and Billboard suddenly start working together now? They have been doing business this way for years and many other albums have not been included because of it. Why did it change this week? Why did this go down at the 11th hour? Wouldn't it make more sense to change the policy and start fresh at the beginning of a sales week?

Good questions and the answers speak volumes about the music business.

Wal*Mart has actually developed into a powerhouse in the music distribution business. That should not be surprising, considering they're a virtual powerhouse in all other aspects of the retail world. Wal*Mart is the number one retailer in the world, but recently they have also become the number one music distributor in the world. This goes beyond Wal*Mart, and is an industry trend into itself. In 1999, 45% of sales came from the record shops, 38% from other retailers and 8% from music clubs. As of 2003, only 33% of sales came from music shops, while retailers grew to 53% and music clubs dropped to 4%. That's the last statistics I could find on the subject. The trend has surely continued, and even though Target and Best Buy are in on the deal, Wal*Mart is the industry leader (just like they are on everything else). Fact is, one out five albums are sold at a Wal*Mart.

So if you are a major record label and you want to push high volumes of CDs, then you need to work with Wal*Mart. Obviously, some artists have no problem taking a payout to give Wal*Mart exclusive rights to distribute their albums. After all, how can you go wrong with getting paid to have access to over 125 million shoppers per week? A more interesting question is to ask how the major labels feel about that. That's another story. On one hand, any label wants access to that kind of customer base. But this is Wal*Mart, and business doesn't work that way in the land of roll backs. Wal*Mart is very demanding on it's suppliers, on what they deliver and how much they deliver it for. Trust me, I know. I work for a produce manufacturer that ships to them. Wal*Mart isn't stupid – They know they have the largest customer base in the world and they use that power to get what they want. If you don't play the game the way Wal*Mart wants to, they just don't do business with you. The story is, doing business with the retail giant gets you access to a 20% of the market; while not doing business immediately costs you 20% of your sales. This gives Wally World the power to determine who gets to be a success simply based on who they do business with.

That's an important point, for it is basically the golden rule of business: "He who has the gold, makes the rules."

Wal*Mart is the silent elephant in the room that the music industry has to work around, but quietly doesn't discuss. And work around it, they do. For instance, all CD's shipped to Wal*Mart must be cleared as family safe. If the record has an advisory sticker, a clean version is made for the store. Ten percent of a major labels sales are in "clean" versions of specific releases, and thus of little interest to the labels, but they do it anyway to keep the giant happy. That's a power player.

A tool used widely by the music industry to market itself is the hype over an album. Some get it for who the singer is (Britney or Madonna), others get hype for notoriety (Eminem or 50 Cent), while some get it for being topical (U2 or Radiohead). Another hype tool is the chart position an album gets. If an album does well enough to get #1, then you hear about it. The album sells itself as more people become interested in something that everyone seems to like. Ask yourself, how many people decided to not buy Spears' new album Blackout until they could hear a review or see how it did? If it took #1, they would be more likely to give it a shot. Sad? Yes, but true. It might be a tough idea to swallow, because you the reader are by definition not that kind of music buyer. That is not a cheap plug on my part - You're on the internet reading music columns by fans for fans, so you by default don't think that way. But look at the people at the store next time you go. You'll see them.

Number one is worth a lot in marketing potential, just like the gold and platinum record titles, and that has always been one major keystone to the industries ability to control things. Best Buy works with the industry, and makes its sales available so the industry plays ball with Best Buy. There is no issue with charting their exclusive albums. Wal*Mart does exclusives and refuses to do certain things with the industry, and technical details like sales information are not used for most chart positions.

Until this week – This week the industry was "suddenly" made aware that Wal*Mart would share Soundscan data, and quickly made arrangements to work together to include Wal*Mart's sales data. Just in time for the Eagles debut to smoke everyone on the charts. What gets even more erroneous, is that this all happened at the last minute. Earlier in the week, there were news reports that Britney was going to be #1 but insider reports showed that the Eagles were exceeding the retailer's expectations by 50%. The same reports suggested the Eagles were outselling everyone else like crazy, but we wouldn't know because of current business practices. Then the Eagles broke in the U.K. at #1, and a day later Americans learned a last minute change in the rules at Billboard allows for the Eagles' sales to be included here, and they are #1. This wasn't planned like most business operations, were you launch something new at the beginning of a cycle, simply because it's easier to switch at the beginning and start fresh. It was done in the middle and affectively at the eleventh hour. That's just waaaay to convenient for me to accept.

Someone wanted the Eagles sales to be included, and they made it happen. Billboard just didn't up and change their policy in mid-stroke for the sake of the Eagles, or to help Wal*Mart out. Why would they? Seriously, they are not charities and gain nothing from it. But on the other hand, Wal*Mart has everything to gain from a CD they have exclusive distribution rights to getting heavy hype for being #1 with 3/4 million sales. I don't know what happened this week, or what changed behind the scenes, but in the last two years the giant retailer's sales must have grown to the point that they now hold a lot of power. Somewhere behind the curtain they just used it. They haven't yet used it for other exclusive deals, like the last Garth Brooks album, but now they have. If it was normal business, it would have had an official start date at the beginning of a sales week. This was not normal business; it was jammed in fast and hard to go into effect this week.

This is no conspiracy theory, nor do I think it's some arch-plot of corporate greed. It's simply business. GM flexes their power to force suppliers into mandatory price cuts every year. McDonalds uses its power to force suppliers, even the one's that compete with each other, into cooperation to collaborate on safety and quality (fascinating subject by the way). And Wal*Mart uses its power to insure it gets complete distribution at the cheapest price on retail items.

And I have to say it again; this is no slam on the Eagles. I'm thrilled they are getting the recognition they deserve. I'm also thrilled that a classic rock band is stomping on the competition. It's just that there is more to the story than meets they eye, even if the visible story is a cool one.

The fact is, Wal*Mart just gained an even greater position in the music business as a distributor.

Time for more facts on distribution: Wal*Mart, when combined with Target and Best Buy have gone this decade from selling 10% of all music nationally to 50%. Half of all music is sold at the big three retailers while over 1200 record stores have closed (Including chains like Tower Records). Local music stores simply can't compete with the mass purchasing power the big three retailers gets to discount the music. Small stores suffer other problems as well due to local, state, and federal overhead burdens, but that is a rant for another day in another section of 411!

The upside of this is that prices on music has actually dropped because of the "Wal*Mart effect". The labels are getting a taste of their own medicine, and being forced to provide cheaper CD's to the retailer so they in turn can offer it at a discount. That's simply what Wal*Mart does - Find ways to get stuff on the shelf cheap. Or to put it in Wal*Mart's own terms, we'll let the companies vice-president and general merchandise manager Gary Severson speak on the subject: "The labels price things based on what they believe they can get... a pricing philosophy a lot of industries have. But we like to price things as cheaply as we possibly can, rather than charge as much as we can get. It's a big difference in philosophy, and we try to help other people see that."

That really isn't news to any music fan or even the average shopper. Music labels try to get whatever they can, keeping CD's at the same price they were 20 years ago. Wal*Mart does the opposite. It's a marriage made in hell really, as you have the most two dramatically opposed business philosophies working together. Wal*Mart tries to do everything they can to get a cheaper price for customers, all to get them into the stores, while the music industry tries to keep prices artificially high and goes so far as to blame their customers for their own problems.

That's really funny when you think about it.

Love or hate Wal*Mart, they are doing something no one else in 20 years has been able to do, and that is break the major labels into discounting their CD's. Truth is, the industry is scared to death. If Wal*Mart decides to not carry any one labels music, they're hosed. Somewhere, an executive is not sleeping at night and it's not because of the coke party he just threw as a marketing expense!

But as funny as all that is, and as good is the news that the labels are finally being forced into dropping prices, there is a big downside. This goes back to all of those music stores closing. Music specialty shops do something that major retailers don't, and that is offer variety. They offer the specialty albums, collector releases, smaller genres and subgenres of music, and everything a large retailer will not. It's simple math. Your average Wal*Mart carries 5000 CDs, while your average music store stocks over 60,000 CDs. Wal*Mart is only going to carry what is most likely to sell and then buy a ton of it to get it discounted, while the specialty store will carry everything. Add to that other issues, like Walton's vision of the family store that now results in the retailer not carrying "Questionable" albums and I think you get the picture.

You might get cheaper CDs, but the CD is going to only be the most popular (and safe) artist available. In other words, mostly crap. They might carry Metallica now, but they sure as hell didn't when the band was new. Who sold Master of Puppets in 1986? Music stores did. Wal*Mart was to busy getting over Jimmy Swaggart's protests in the south trying to get the "Evil" music out of the store. Wal*Mart acted bravely in the face of adversity and not only caved in, but actually stopped carrying Rolling Stone magazine for a while! Wal*mart is only carrying the band now because they are huge and a guarantee sell, but their presence today is helping kill the stores that got the group into the position in the first place.

That's scary when you think about it.

There are many people like me, who have very specific tastes. My tastes happen to be metal and classic rock, along with a few odd niches (I have a soft spot for post-punk and goth from the early 80's). I can guaran-damn-tee you that the odds of me walking into a Wal*Mart and finding Sir Lord Baltimore, MC5, Tyrant, Diamond Head, Kreator, or even a frick'n Bauhaus CD is zilch. I can find most of those at a good music store, or at the least they will order it for me. The guy at the music store will also have the decency to know what in the hell I'm talking about. Insert into this parable your version of the music you love and it plays out the same. Hip-hop, metal, electronic, oldies, even classical! Good luck getting anything out of those from a chain except maybe a few of the most popular examples. Yippee...

All is not doom and gloom however, for the ultimate niche music store in now sucker punching the labels and distributors hard, and it's the dirty secret not getting enough press: The Internet.

I'm not talking about downloading, but that is a player in all of this. And I'm certainly not talking about the straw horse that is illegal downloading. It's on-line shopping. There is an explosion of on-line stores that will cater to every music specialty there is. I'm not just talking about a special genre like metal, but even subgenres. I can go online and immediately find sites that specialize in black metal, power metal, classic metal, stoner, doom, death, and on and on. You can do this with the music you love as well.

Add to this the growing number of smaller labels that specialize in music genres and you can easily see where the industry is moving. I can go online and buy the music I want from a distributor who sells great music from a small label. They produce good music that is not designed to mass market, and the on-line shop has the power to carry that kind of music. Real music pouring out of small labels who let musicians be musicians, and want to get it to customers they appreciate. That is the future just waiting for us to wake up and see it, to embrace it. We know it, now we just need to really know it.

And at the end of the day, the real horror that is overcoming the splintering music industry, be it major labels and distributors, is the growing awareness that the internet, the dirty secret, is empowering you. Wal*Mart needs you. The major labels also need you. But you don't need either of them.

You know who needs Wal*Mart and a major label? Britney Spears does. They can have each other.



Encore

As much contempt as I have for the major labels, I ironically harbor little ill will towards Wally World. As a business manager, I do have some business issues with how they treat their suppliers, but as a customer/retailer I can recognize them for the economic phenomena that they are. People want DVD players and clothes cheap, and the retailer fills that demand. I'm cool with that. But I also recognize them for what they are, and how they are ultimately detrimental to a core music lover like me. The story is the relationship between Wal*Mart and the big labels, and how this ultimately affects the music I love. Even if the events of this week indicate that the relationship is quickly becoming the business equivalent of an abusive marriage, and as humorous as that sad analogy is, the end results do us little favors.

In the middle of all this behind the scenes bullshit, at least one magical thing happened. The Eagles returned after 28 years to prove they still can bring it. They soared to number one and stomped the competition. They didn't need any of this to do that, just as we don't need any of this nonsense to get the music we want. They know it. We know it. Now it's time to do it and soar beyond the limits they give us.






The Set List
The albums on my playlist this week; some new, some old, always good :



Into Eternity - The Scattering of the Ashes

Tim Roth is back with some new guns to record and tour the hell out of this album, building success the old fashion way – By earning it one gig at a time. Stu Bllock is brought in to sing, and does that while becoming an accomplished front man as well. Check out the guys live to see what I mean, not to mention that high note he hits on "Timeless Winter". That song rocks ten ways from Friday. The band here meshes into moshing singularity to dish out their brand of extreme progressive metal. But progressive is not the story as the guys throw other genres like power and death into the mix as well, usually all within one song at neck break speed. Got to talk to them at a local gig earlier this year, and you couldn't ask for a cooler down to earth group of dudes.

But that's not all, as Into Eternity is in the house tonight!

Severe Emotional Distress






Timeless Winter

Great guitar work from Roth and Stu shows off multiple vocal ranges!






Forgotten Classics
Time to pull a classic from the collection and give it the attention it deserves!


Blue Oyster Cult – Secret Treaties






Blue Oyster Cvlt has many great albums, racking up hits in the 70's and the 80's. And for a few grumbles over the last two (and that is a matter of degrees) I can easily recommend the bands catalog. But the first three albums are part of what is now called the "Black and White Era" after the graphic art covers only featuring those two colors. Blue Oyster Cvlt was billed as America's answer to Black Sabbath (by the label). And while allusions can be drawn (more noticeable if you really dig into the lyrics), the Cult was not a parallel to the damned four. These guys are a foundation of Rock in their own right, a classic spin that inspired rock and metal. Within the early 70's the guys hit the world with the cold and stainless sheen of the next generation of rock and created masterpieces in their own right.

Secret Treaties is the bands third LP, and the last release of the excellent black and white period. Cold and stainless steel describes the album well, as that is the production. It's almost jarring in its severity. But once you move beyond that, oh boy, you realize that the chill production values hides nothing and the music is left alone to survive, and survive it does. The excellent writing and performance warms the air and rises beyond the vinyl to tell its story to you, seeping into your conscience and winning on its own terms. "Career of Evil" is just awesome, "Dominance and Submission" is pure classic and I find it hard to believe this stuff was released recorded in the early 70's. "ME 262" is a fan classic, with its great guitar work. Finally, I would be remise to not mention the immortal fan favorite "Astronomy" ending this golden journey sketched into vinyl.

Take the time to read the lyrics as well. "Career of Evil" makes me smile every time. It's got win written all over it.



Tales from the Pit
Reader Feedback, what's on your playlist, and the great gigs you've seen.

Where would I be without Marty:

Where to begin here: first thanks for the props and the Candlemass tribute and the comments about The Writ. Sadly that ritual didn't happen this year as planned. Oh well...

Damn. That was the best part of the story! Maybe next year…

I will agree with you--the albums I named don't set the complete ambience all the way through---perhaps a mix tape.

We do seem to read each other's minds on a lot of this stuff.

On to Hagar---being a huge Hagar fan, especially the overlooked solo stuff from the 70s, I do have to point out an error you made in your list of his albums. Loud & Clear is a sh*t compilation that combines parts of Live 1980 and All Night Long (which you accidentally omitted from the list) and shouldn't technically be counted in his main output as it is a compilation (although looking at Dio, you have included comps---in that case, Sammy has some others you missed, such as Unboxed, which contained two songs unavilable anywhere else, Rematch, Essential Red Collection, etc). Shame on you forgetting about All Night Long as that has some cool stuff on it including a smoking live version of Montrose's "Bad Motor Scooter" (ruined by the fade out just as the outro leads are starting). I gotta give props for mentioning HSAS and Planet US. I have some Planet US songs if you'd like to hear them. I also have a smoking live show (DVD) of HSAS if you're interested. Oh, and Aaronson is probably better known for playing with Billy Squier than Foghat---either that or having really gay hair.

And really? You're knocking the rest of the Montrose catalog? No argument that the first is the best, but Paper Money is worth a listen for "I Got The Fire" and "Spaceage Sacrifice" and Warner Bros. Presents... is worth a listen to check out "Matriarch", "Twenty Flight Rock", "Dancin' Feet" and "Black Train". That's 1/2 the album, so I don't know that I'd write those off as " not worth your time". Isn't that opinion and everyone should explore and decide theirself? :)

As soon as I wrote that, I knew someone would call me out on it. To Marty's credit, he's right about half of Paper Money being good. I listened to it again and there is some real good songs on there, with "I've got the Fire" being a real scorcher. It's just the other half really loses the album for me. Meh… Like you said, it's just an opinion.

And thanks for catching my gaffe on not including "All Night Long". I'll adjust the column. When I edited down the master list, I kept the wrong release on it. One thing I have struggled with is whether to count compilations, and I think I might just forgo it in the future. I keep changing my mind on where to draw the line and I'm starting to think the easiest thing would be sticking to full releases, EPs, and live albums. We'll see. For the first run, I'm just happy the idea generated interest.

And yes, when I get my sorry ass caught up with the columns on 411 and my day job, hopefully this weekend, I'll drop you line about the Planet Us material. Bad Ass!

Ok, enough of me feeding back for now. Suggestion for your next Before They Were Famous: Michael Schenker (and granted, he's not really on the level that Hagar or Dio are, but he does have an interesting history tied with a lot of famous musicians/bands along the way).

Schenker is a fun idea. I wonder how many kids today know who he is. Hmmm…





Final Thoughts

It's been real. Now you be real and go buy your favorite music from people who care about the music we love, rip it out of the plastic and turn it up to 11. If someone complains, raise the fist of rock and tell them the dude at the music store says 'Hi".