7.2.11 Adam News & Info

I know that stocking levels are up; I have assumed that it is related to Sony/RCA activity.

I believe because in the past month, Walmart and Target both increased stocking levels for FYE -- that has to be done manually because sales have not gone up per Soundscan enough to have it be auto-replenishment based on sell-through. The only way both would have done it within a month is that RCA did something -- and typically before a label starts a big promotion, they will inform the retailers (Anderson in Walmart's case) that something will be happening.

I used to be a retail exec., now among other things I analyze retail and occasionally can work a bit of fan-girl research into my day job.

RELATED INFO, but here is a good article about how Walmart's music business is run. Not done by Walmart and there are very close ties between Anderson and Sony.

Here is a really interesting interview with the CEO of Anderson:

'The rate of decline of physical music is happening so much quicker than the rate of increase in digital music that if the trend doesn't change within three years the entire music industry could go away,' says Anderson, whose many business interests include Liquid Digital Media, which serves as Walmart's e-commerce music site.

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'The rate of decline of physical music is happening so much quicker than the rate of increase in digital music that if the trend doesn't change within three years the entire music industry could go away,' says Anderson, whose many business interests include Liquid Digital Media, which serves as Walmart's e-commerce music site.

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'In the past, record labels could be successful if they hit with one out of 10 artists,' he explains. 'Now they have to hit on one out of two. That has changed the model so it makes it much more difficult to develop artists, and new artists are the lifeblood of the business.

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More artists are without record labels and that's benefited Anderson's business to some extent. Country legend Garth Brooks, for example, signed an exclusive deal in 2005 to have his music sold only in Walmart — a marketing move Anderson pioneered, along with concerts in Walmart stores and parking lots to rev up fan fervor for up-and-coming artists.

Still, he's concerned new music is what keeps the industry alive — that, he says, is what generates radio play, fills concert seats and fuels purchases, whether online or at a bricks-and-mortar stores.

Anderson is encouraging record labels to publish smaller CDs — six to eight songs versus a dozen or more — and much more frequently; to release CDs to retailers at the same time songs are posted to iTunes and released to radio; to include a digital download with the CD sale; and to own some of the risk for the retailer's floor space by selling on consignment.

Gallante's Sony label has produced some eight-song CDs and is getting ready to release a six-song Blake Shelton CD.

'It's a mixed response at this point,' Gallante says. 'You can't change the music business by changing the price and changing the number of sides. You have to have great music, and that's a general issue of concern for the music business.'

Link to entire article: www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/oct/18/entrepreneur-seeks-new-channels-media-goes-digital/