If you thought the music to Jay-Z and Kanye West’s forthcoming Watch The Throne album was too rich for your blood, the independent retailers of the land feel the same way about the duo’s means to move the product all the same. Set for a release date of Aug. 8, the high-end rappers struck a deal with Best Buy and iTunes–two of the, if not the biggest names in music distribution today–for the exclusive rights to their move their record before everyone else. With record sales infinitely down, a project of this magnitude is sure to garner plenty of attention along with a considerable amount of revenue and the indies look to be on the outside looking in for the time being.
A healthy amount of CEOs and record store owners formed an open letter to ask the pair to reconsider their decision to cut “the little guy” out of the picture. The tone of the letter, while respectful and urgent, also called the move a “short-sighted strategy.”
Do you think Jay-Z and Kanye are in the wrong, or does the status they built for themselves deserve the most extravagant rollout possible?
Click here for a list of the names involved in the declaration for independence.
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They’re definitely in the wrong, especially since Best Buy has recently lessened their focus on music. Ensuring that actual record stores and even Amazon are left out of the majority of profits for one of the biggest albums of the year is a low-blow.
It doesn’t matter who has/doesn’t have it first as I will likely have had my burned copy for sometime before it reaches stores. The way I see it I need my $10 more than they do.
Yeah I don’t know if making any album difficult to purchase can be smart for record sales for any artist in 2011. Just more of an “excuse” for heads to bootleg.
People should hate Best Buy and Itune for supporting the Jay West Ego trip. The little is just always looking for a reason to go all political. Personally I hope the dynamic duo keep finding new ways to make that butter off those blood suckers. I just wish I could gracefully sell America a “Bridge in Brooklyn” and walk away farting roses.
I really want to see the packaging od this album, so if this isn’t at Target i’m gonna be pissed. Its a big difference between going down the street (Target) and going down the freeway (Best Buy).
They can do whatever they please, but if they pull crapola like this, don’t get upset when the Rapidshare links start showing up.
i’m taking Teef’s advice & bootlegging this shit
This move seems good. The album would probably already sell and its going to be bootlegged heavily. Why not make your album CASE an exclusive product. In the end doesn’t really matter. They’re Winning
i mean… it’s there product. they can pimp it as they see fit. more artists would probly do the same if they had the combined clout of ye and hov.
Watch for the Throne, I’ll watch for the leak
Hahahahah this only means it will be torrented alot earlier…they fucked up…Im sure ass hell not buying it from BestBuy or Itunes..maybe just target…there music is always the cheapest for some reason.
i think its dumb but its their cd so if they want to give the rights to whomever first let them. still doing 25o+ first week
@ Biggga
Yeah, when is that coming? Next week, right!?
I don’t shop at indie record stores enough to really give an opinion on this. But here’s an opinion I read on someone else’s site ([tumblinerb.com], interesting guy) that I thought seemed like a good point if it’s true.
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I, for one, would’ve never expected Jay-Z and Kanye West to short the little guy.
This is more complex than that though. Because these store owners went and mucked up their message by turning it into a press release for Record Store Day, a festivity that to date has done almost nothing with or for hip hop buyers and artists. In fact more than a few of the stores that I’ve been to on that list maintain new hip hop sections thinner than the length of my forearm and that stock is usually filled with more Madlib records than Jay-Z records. The Mom And Pop stores that will suffer the most from what Jay and Ye are doing – ones that code more “hood” than “hipster,” for lack of a better delineation – have little involvement in whatever weird union is pushing this agenda and probably weren’t even invited to the table in the first place. In fact mega indies like Amoeba and chains like J&R (both signed at the bottom) have likely done as much damage to these smaller stores as Best Buy and Itunes do to Amoeba and J&R. I’m not saying it’s not fucked up to sell an album exclusively at Best Buy, it is. Just don’t mistake the protester for the bottom line victim.
In reality it is a business and a marketing strategy. We can sit here and hate on all day. If we were in that position we cannot honestly say we wouldnt do the same thing especially in a time when record are not selling due to bootleggers and me myself has bootlegged a few because some stuff just is not that good. If you owned a a product and it could be duplicated for nothing what would you do?
So Here’s The thing we pretty much agree that album will be bootlegged for sure.
Bootlegging will lessen actually retail sales
So if Jay & Ye can get guaranteed $$$ upfront from Best Buy & iTunes.
All those Mom and Pops sales combined won’t equal what BB & Apple paid them
Also This happens all the time in all forms of media
Just look at the iTunes exclusive list
[en.wikipedia.org]
Prince did an album deal with Target
Tech N9ne has BB exclusive Bonus CD
The TV Show Damages only comes on DirecTV
certain Movies are released early at Blockbuster
Video Games are like Uncharted are only on PS3
[www.facebook.com]
Didn’t Jay cut out iTunes and other online sites when he released American Gangster? His reasoning was to make sure that the album was bought as a whole and not in single tracks online. Said something along the line of “you wouldn’t buy a film scene by scene, so why would you an album?”.
Think they’re just testing different ways of releasing albums as nobody really seems to have found any sort of way to combat losing sales in this era.
You want to give people as many chances as possible to impulse buy your album. This is the kind of album people might just pick up without knowing much about it simply because of who’s involved. You want it everywhere.
@Phillmatic: Your video game analogy doesn’t work because most exclusives are made or are funded by the people it is exclusive too. If Jay & Kanye wanted to release their album only through their own personal website it would be analogous.
puttin the album fuckin everywhere all at once would be the biggest rollout. who buys music at best buy? gaga went platinum because of amazon. these guys aren’t thinking.
this is marketing. this is a way to get people talking about the album more. by doing this and the smaller stores doing a PR they have more “hype” more press for the release. and on other sites that wouldn’t normally put them in their news feed for the day.
1. It doesnt matter because no company can compete with FREE(downloading)
2. Anybody that buys it at an indie store does because they prob dont have a Best Buy or Target in they town (and yes there are still many small towns in America that dont have these stores because the population is smaller. Usually there is just Wal-Mart)
3. Indie Store avg. price – &17.99
Best Buy/Target avg. price – $10.00
That’s an idiotic move !! If you really want peeps to buy your shit, put it everywhere so even if they’re not thinking of it they just might decide to rock with it if they run into it. How many people to go Best Buy nowadays ( I only go for movies) I don’t fuck with physical cd’s anymore ( I have too many in my condo as is). Not everyone has iPhones or ITunes subscriptions. Why cut out the mom and pop from getting peeps in.
there ain’t a Best Buy in my hood. now way am i making a half hour trip to buy that shit.
BOOTLEGGED!!!
My mom and pop closed about 7 or 8 years ago. So its fine for me.
“My mom and pop closed about 7 or 8 years ago.”
^^
Mine left about 2 yrs ago. I’m not sure what the big deal is? I go to Best Buy/Target for the low price and UGHH or Fat Beats for indie releases I can’t get at the big chains. Seems like a whole bunch to do about nothing.
If Best Buy and iTunes are gonna put more money as a whole into their pockets, you can’t be mad.
Let’s face it, what are mom and pop stores gonna do, not sell Jay-Z or Kanye records after this?
Shhhheeeeeeiiiiitttt… that’s like 50% of their sales anyway. lol
@Thomas what Fat Beats do you go to? Both stores went out of business last year. #Fail