Battle of the No. 1s

The Eagles haven’t been taking it easy these days. Their two-disc release, “Long Road Out of Eden”, sold more than 710,000 copies last week, putting the album at Number One on the Billboard charts.

Interestingly, the album was sold exclusively at Wal-Mart. It holds the title of highest first-week sales of any release in two years at the store. But Wal-Mart almost barred The Eagles from Billboard prestige.

The New York Times reports:

“Under a policy dating to the early 1990s, the music trade magazine Billboard regarded albums sold exclusively through one retailer as ineligible for its published charts, which rank the nation’s top sellers, because the albums were not widely available.”

But Billboard reversed its decision the day before weekly sales data is released. And The Eagles soared to the top.

Billboard says that mass merchants hold a larger scrap of the market than before. The NYT reports that mass merchants account for 39 percent of this year’s sales. That’s more than iTunes.

Billboard obviously received some criticism. The NYT reports:

“‘This seems like a big ego play to me,” said Don Van Cleave, a merchant in Birmingham, Ala., who oversees the Coalition of Independent Music Stores representing more than two dozen independent merchants. ‘Somebody went through some arm-twisting or negotiations, at least, to have themselves reflected on the industry chart.’”

I don’t understand how this is ego play, Don. The No. 1 slot is for the album with the greatest number of sales. I’d like to think that slot represents the consumer’s favorite album that week. Consumers will buy what they like best. It shouldn’t matter where they’re spending their cash.

I’m certain The Eagles would have taken No. 1 even if their album was sold everywhere. Let’s face it. They make better music than Britney Spears (who was expected to take No. 1). Her album is called “Blackout”. Come on. Have a little more respect for the consumer.

The NYT reported that record executives fear Billboard’s shift might influence artists to sell exclusively to large retailers. I don’t buy it. Although Wal-Mart does sell cheaper music, they’re not always cheaper than iTunes. The consumer doesn’t appear too concerned about price.

And just because an album is sold at Wal-Mart doesn’t mean it will immediately hit No. 1. In fact, most mainstream albums are sold at Wal-Mart anyways. Exclusivity won’t give the album an additional allure. It’s no secret. Wal-Mart isn’t the epitome of exclusivity. And I’ve never heard Wal-Mart described as glamorous.

(The only reason other retailers should complain is because they’re missing out on the revenue affiliated with No. 1 sales exclusive to Wal-Mart.)

I’ll end by saying that if my (hypothetical) album reached No. 1 according to Billboard’s former standards, it wouldn’t mean much. And how could it, knowing that another album sold more, but was discounted because it was sold exclusively somewhere else?