Kokopelli Times » best buy

Chinese Democracy

Erik Rostad — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:15:00 +0000

It appears that Guns N’ Roses will finally be releasing their new album “Chinese Democracy” before the end of the year. The highly anticipated, ten years in the making album will be sold exclusively through Best Buy retail outlets. No word yet if the album will also appear on iTunes or AmazonMP3.

Guns N’ Roses is now managed by Front Line Management which is headed by Irving Azoff. Azoff is well known for his work in selling albums exclusively to specific retailers. He was behind the Eagle’s latest exclusive release to Wal*Mart, “Long Road Out of Eden.” The album went on to sell 3.1 million copies in the USA.

It will be fun to watch the response to this album. There are a ton of GnR fans out there. But times have changed. Will the 10 years wait time create the necessary anticipation or the dreaded disgust for this album? We shall see.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com

Best Buy Napster

Erik Rostad — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:29:00 +0000

Best Buy just purchased the music website Napster for $121 million in cash. Napster, as we all know, really started the headache for the music industry back in the late 90′s as people could share music from their libraries. It was eventually shut down and later replaced with a more respected business model that included charging for the music.

Napster is a subscription-based service now. You pay $12.95 a month and have unlimited access to over 5 million songs. Napster has also gotten into selling DRM-free (Digital Rights Management) downloads on the site as well. With over 700,000 current subscribers, they are bringing in over $9 million a year.

This is a pretty good move for Best Buy. One other side note is that Napster has $67 million in cash. So, the price tag was essentially $121 million – $67 million = $54 million. As Best Buy decreases their floor space for cd’s that aren’t selling, they are making room in a virtual sense with this acquisition. We read daily of new websites trying to obtain the proper licensing rights from the labels in order to sell music downloads. Best Buy just purchased the right to not have to go through all that. Napster already did it.

This also establishes Best Buy as a company looking to change with the times. While other retailers just continue to decrease floor space for cd’s, Best Buy has actually done something that relates to how people are now consuming music. It will be fun to watch how Best Buy uses this acquisition to its benefit by connecting in-store and web-based purchases.

In other news, Best Buy’s second quarter profit was announced today and it is down 19% to $202 million. Revenues were up however at $9.8 billion.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com

Best Buy Live?

Erik Rostad — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:53:00 +0000

Best Buy, the electronics retailer, is setting aside space in 85 of its stores to sell musical instruments and equipment. This is an interesting brand extension although one that I don’t quite understand. I get it from the point of Best Buy expanding into other electronics. But you are also talking about a completely different skill set. Your average techie that knows all there is to know about the latest Bose or Samsung might not have a clue about the best guitar amp to go with that Gibson.

I could see this concept working for the parents buying their child a starter electric guitar and amp. I don’t see this working for true musicians. Nor do I see the Best Buy vibe being improved when 50 year old businessmen are purchasing 55 inch plasma’s to the cacophony of 13 year old guitar amateurs testing the volume limits on that Marshall amp. If nothing else, the Best Buy employees will begin having terrible nightmares full of bits of mediocre guitar solos while selling mediocre washer and dryer sets.

Unless Best Buy adds a new workforce full of knowledgeable musicians, I don’t see this concept working or lasting.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com