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- jimmythegent
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Re: New Telegraph article
Here's the actual article:
When Axl Rose first dreamed up the name '˜Chinese Democracy' for the sixth Guns N Roses album in 1994, the phrase was taken to be an oxymoron. But after 14 years of recording sessions and line up changes, during which the album allegedly became the most expensive ever made ($13 million and counting), the music business joke was that the Chinese would get democracy before Guns N Roses released their masterpiece. Or whatever it is.
Anyway, latest news is that the long delayed album from what's left of the 80s superstar rockers (procrastinating singer Axl Rose and some hired guns, basically) will see the light of day in November. China may have got Starbucks and the Olympics in the interim, but it still hasn't quite got democracy, which means Rose doesn't have to think up a new name. But some things have changed. During the recordings' long gestation, the music business has altered so much that the album is not going to be released by a record company at all. It is going to be exclusively retailed (in the US at least) through consumer electronics superstores Best Buy.
For a rebel rocker, you might have thought there was something deeply uncool about being signed to a big budget shopping chain but if you have seen Axl Rose lately you might speculate that cool doesn't come into it (the headband remains but I'm not so convinced by the hair sprouting underneath). After two decades of high overheads and no visible means of support, Rose is clearly looking at the bottom line. So he is following in the mercenary footsteps of the Eagles, whose comeback album '˜The Long Road To Eden' was released in America exclusively by WalMart, a big budget supermarket chain, a bit like Tescos with added aisle space. The problem with such exclusive retail deals are that they are not fan friendly solutions. It apparently didn't matter to the Eagles that there is no WalMart in either Los Angeles or New York. I mean, there must be a few Eagles fans in LA, wouldn't you think? Maybe they figured their fans are old enough to drive, so they could just hit the road if they really wanted to get their hands on a CD.
These days it seems like everybody is a record company. Sensing the weakness of the major labels, mobile phone operators, coffee shops and supermarkets have been signing up big names for big bucks and releasing records as loss leaders. It doesn't matter if they don't make a profit as long as they bring customers to the brand. You know the deal, you go in to buy some batteries and come out clutching a discounted CD of overcooked spandex metal.
Old rockers never die. They can be found wandering the aisles of their local supermarket, looking for the best deal.
Just a thought, but do they have Best Buys in China? Probably not....
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