Wal-Mart: New Music Powerhouse Starts Dealing Directly With Artists

One of the biggest music events of the summer has already taken place in Fayetteville, Ark. From Tuesday through Thursday last week, the Bud Walton Arena at the University of Arkansas presented shows by Journey, the country singer Keith Urban, the "American Idol" personality Carrie Underwood and the alternative rock group All-American Rejects.

The occasion that brought this all-star line-up together? Not a festival or cause but Wal-Mart Stores' annual shareholders meeting. Wal-Mart was the largest music retailer in the country last year, so musicians (and their labels) are eager to maintain good relationships, appearing in the special concerts for the chain, which are also open to the public.

During her performance, Ms. Underwood volunteered that a Wal-Mart had recently opened in her hometown, Checotah, Okla., and Keith Urban changed his lyrics from "Goodbye, city, I'm country-bound" to "I'm Wal-Mart-bound." And the retailer is using its leverage to aggressively pursue new deals.

On Tuesday Wal-Mart started selling on an exclusive basis a three-disc collection by the popular 1980s band Journey called "Revelation." The difference, however, is that there is no middleman: the album was bought directly from the band without the help of a record label.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Leper]

Journey is selling directly to Walmart because no one else cares.

[NoSillyName]

Good idea to deal directly from the artists, but will they still CENSOR out the naughty words?

[Sundialsvc4]

Nice idea, but it's still "plastic disks."

Who wants "plastic disks?"

[Getbent]

1 massive hard drive crash and you'll wish you had it all on "hard plastic"

[revko]

Journey?

I thought the headline said "artists"

[Jezdukowski]

"and the alternative rock group All-American Rejects" - yeah, they're alternative alright...an alternative to decent f*&)ing music, same sentiments for the rest of the "artists" listed in this article.

[JScott]

Artist sellout, but that's typical.

[spiderbucket]

And I will never buy any music from those "artists."

[Sumocat]

Don't lump them all together. The new Journey album with their new singer is incredible. I downloaded it the day it was released (MP3 with no DRM), and I'm quite pleased that not one cent went to a music label. The more the labels get cut out of the new media world, the better.

[spiderbucket]

I meant that I won't buy anything at Wal Mart.