“Music to Wal-Mart’s ears”
Matt Nistler
Bemidji State University
Honors 1105
Wal-Mart: Its Power, Influence and Values
05/05/06
Abstract
The effect of Wal-Mart on the music industry is the topic that will be discussed. Wal-Mart has a strict policy regarding the standards of music and cover art that it deems appropriate or inappropriate that has a large impact on the music industry. While Wal-Mart stocks a large quantity of discs, there are many discs that for certain reasons never make it on Wal-Mart’s shelf. Wal-Mart accounts for a very large percentage of compact disc sales, which puts bands and record labels in a curious situation and asks the question; “Should artistic material be altered solely to make Wal-Mart happy?” A variety of sources, including first-hand experiences will be utilized.
.
Along with many teenagers out there in this world, I am a big fan of music and anything and everything that goes along with it. I assumed that retailing superpower, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart, would affect the music industry just as it does most every other aspects of business.
Wal-Mart is indeed the largest music retailer in the country, but particularly pop and country music. In fact, “Some label executives estimate that Wal-Mart is responsible for 50% of the (country music) genre's sales.” (Goldman, 2006) For the most part it is a great convenience that Wal-Mart carries music. Just like all areas of merchandise they carry, Wal-Mart is able to carry quite a large number of compact discs. Also, like other areas of inventory, the CDs are typically cheaper than most other record stores. This all combines to be quite convenient for the customer who can drop by their local Wal-Mart and pick up practically any CD they might want, at a quite reasonable price. Also, it is a common occurrence that in small towns Wal-Mart may be the only music retailer in town
On the flip side, however, one has to realize how this is affecting the way the music industry has operated in our country for quite some time now. Located within reasonable distance in most any decent-sized town, throughout recent history, has been an indie record store. Whether it was vinyl records, 8-tracks, cassettes, or compact discs, the local record store has always been there to help out the customer. Typically these local record stores have been run by people who truly love music and are eager to help the customer find the band they are looking for, or to suggest a band that might be to their liking. Prices may have been a little on the higher side, but it has always been expected as the costs of upkeeping and operating small businesses is also quite high.
A problem arises for these indie record stores when Wal-Mart comes to town. In addition to buying inventory in bulk quantities, Wal-Mart is also able to demand low prices from music distributors. Due to their massive size, Wal-Mart is usually able to get their way. It is necessary for them to buy their goods at low prices so that they can pass on the savings to the customer. Wal-Mart thrives off low prices no matter what the item being sold is.
When the main inventory the local record store has in stock is music, they obviously live or die off of music sales at their store. Wal-Mart, on the other hand, can afford to price their music incredibly low. In many cases they actually lose money on the compact discs, selling them for less than they paid to buy them from the distributor for. The local record store obviously cannot afford to lose money on their music inventory.
When the customer has to decide whether to buy the music they have been looking for at Wal-Mart at a lower price, or the local independent record store at a slightly higher price, most of the time they’ll go to Wal-Mart to save money. When enough customers think this way, the record stores will have lost most of their business and go out of business. The people who are truly passionate about music end up getting shoved aside by Wal-Mart and their associates who most likely are only in the music department because their manager said “Hey Billy, you’re going to work in the music department.”
As if this weren’t impacting the music industry enough, Wal-Mart is actually starting to take on the role of a record company itself. One has to look no further than the music of country music superstar Garth Brooks. After realizing how much it would save, Wal-Mart decided to purchase the rights to the entire discography of the country legend, including both past, present, and future music. Upon being asked what she thought of Wal-Mart having exclusive rights to Garth Brooks’ collection, one customer states, “I have to go to Wal-Mart anyway for other stuff, so I probably would have picked it up from Wal-Mart anyhow."(Goldman, 2006). Brooks himself points out the benefit for the customer in saying, “To get a box (his box-set) out like that for $25 just shows me that these guys are not just eliminating the middleman and keeping the middleman's money — that makes me feel very good.” (Goldman, 2006).
Another popular topic of discussion regarding Wal-Mart and the music industry is the types of music that they choose to carry. To quote Wal-Mart’s official music policy, “Wal-Mart Stores, Sam's Club and Walmart.com (collectively ‘Wal-Mart’) do not carry recordings designated with the Parental Advisory Label.” “Wal-Mart carries certain recordings designated as Edited and marks these recordings as such on the applicable album or item page of the Walmart.com website.” (Music Content Policy, 2006)
This may seem rather insignificant that Wal-Mart does not stock objectionable compact discs, but when one realizes the scale of everything that Wal-Mart operates on, this actually has a great impact on the music industry. Whether we like it or not, it is a fact that many of the best-selling artists use objectionable language, have provocative cover-art, or have controversial or sexual themes. When Wal-Mart refuses to stock a disc because it is not “family friendly” that means that the record label is not just losing sales at a single store, they are losing sales at every Wal-Mart in the country where the disc would normally be sold.
This potential loss in sales obviously does not benefit the artist’s record labels. The labels typically want to get their artists’ music on store shelves everywhere no matter what it takes. This means that often times by Wal-Mart demanding clean versions of records, the record label will be pressured into submitting to Wal-Mart’s demands in an effort to not lose sales, and consequently the artist will have their original material altered differently than was originally intended in the explicit version. As stated in the New York Times, “Because of Wal-Mart's clout, record labels and bands will design different covers and booklets, omit songs from their albums, electronically mask objectionable words and even change lyrics in order to gain a place on Wal-Mart's shelves.”(Strauss, 1996).
This also affects the buyer who may or may not want the amended version of the music. Music fan Adam McLean, 13, said in 1996 to the New York Times, “They blank out all the words they think are bad. I hate it. It doesn't sound the same.” Even Adam’s mother opposed Wal-Mart’s handling of their music inventory in saying “It should be my decision (whether to buy the explicit or amended version) instead of theirs.”(Strauss, 1996).
From an artist’s perspective, it is easy to see why there might be some frustration when Wal-Mart, and, in turn, record labels, ask the artists to censor their material. When asked upon his feelings toward Wal-Mart, rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy commented, “It's ridiculous that Wal-Mart asks you to clean up your music, yet they sell guns. They need to wipe out that contradiction.” (Morse, 1996)
Although it is true that most Wal-Mart’s do not sell guns, the analogy that Chuck D presents can be used in other examples. I personally made a trip to Wal-Mart the other weekend to take a first-hand look at the music inventory. I was impressed that I could not find one disc with a parental advisory label on it, meaning that they clearly are sticking to their rules. Any disc that would normally be considered controversial was labeled as “edited,” “clean” or “amended”.
I did find it interesting, however, that a few racks away from the compact discs was the DVD aisle filled with “Unrated” movies. I would hardly consider the American Pie series to be up to par with Wal-Mart’s strict morals, yet these movies and those similar are still easily accessible at Wal-Mart. As Chuck D mentioned with the guns example, I find that Wal-Mart’s selling of controversial movies but not controversial music is contradicting their morals.
There have been many artists who have pushed the limits and thereby had to face the consequences on Wal-Mart’s shelves. “Alternative pop singer Beck agreed to delete an obscenity the F word for a cleaned-up version of his first album, "Mellow Gold". “The Butthole Suffers agreed to change their name to B*** II*** Surfers on CD jackets. John Mellencamp recently agreed to airbrush out images of Jesus Christ and the devil on his latest CD, "Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky.” (Morse, 1996).
Even the cover art on rockers’ White Zombie’s release “Super Sexy Swingin’ Sounds” was adjusted to meet Wal-Mart’s demands. The cover art originally depicted a nude (although no obscenities were shown) woman lying down on a hammock. To make it on Wal-Mart’s shelves the art, a bikini had to be airbrushed onto the woman. Rob Zombie, the front-man for White Zombie’s response to this was “I know that Wal-Mart stocks bottles of shampoo with more nudity than our album cover". “I didn't do it [give into censorship] for Wal-Mart, but for the kids who have no other' way of getting the music.” (Morse, 1996).
On the same day that I made the trip to Wal-Mart’s CD aisle in addition to looking for parental advisory stickers, I also went in search of controversial cover art. I had remembered reading in an article that one of the best selling CD’s of all-time, Nirvana’s Nevermind, had the cover art censored at Wal-Mart stores. I wanted to see this first hand so I looked through the “N” titles until I found Nirvana. Sure enough the cover art that I had seen probably a hundred times at practically ever other music store, with a nude baby swimming in a pool, had in this particular case a big sticker over the baby’s genitalia. I found this to be a prime example of censorship in action.
Whether Wal-Mart’s dominance over the music industry is good for the artists, record labels, and consumers is for the best or not is really a matter of opinion. One also has to examine all aspects of the story, and decide what values are most important to society. If consumers solely want shelves full of affordable music, then Wal-Mart is great for society. However, if society wants unedited music that is brought by people who truly love the music industry, then perhaps it is best to look elsewhere. Whether we like it or not, Wal-Mart appears to be taking a hold of the music industry just like most every other aspect of business and it’s our duty to either continue support of them or to take the opposite stance. For the time being, however, it appears to be a Wal-Mart dominated world, and music lovers will have to continue living side beside with the retail giant.
References
Goldman, A. (2006, January 26). wal-mart buys monopoly of garth brooks' music. Los
Angeles Times. Retrieved April 21, 2006, from http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/walmart/2006/garth_music_exclusive.php
Morse, S. (1996, August 6). Up against the
wal-mart. Boston Globe, p. c13.
Music Content Policy. Retrieved April 22, 2006, from Wal-Mart's
Content Policy Web site http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=195963
Strauss, N. (1996, November 12). Wal-mart's cd
standards are changing
pop music. New York Times.
Matt Nistler
Bemidji State University
Honors 1105
Wal-Mart: Its Power, Influence and Values
05/05/06
Abstract
The effect of Wal-Mart on the music industry is the topic that will be discussed. Wal-Mart has a strict policy regarding the standards of music and cover art that it deems appropriate or inappropriate that has a large impact on the music industry. While Wal-Mart stocks a large quantity of discs, there are many discs that for certain reasons never make it on Wal-Mart’s shelf. Wal-Mart accounts for a very large percentage of compact disc sales, which puts bands and record labels in a curious situation and asks the question; “Should artistic material be altered solely to make Wal-Mart happy?” A variety of sources, including first-hand experiences will be utilized.
.
Along with many teenagers out there in this world, I am a big fan of music and anything and everything that goes along with it. I assumed that retailing superpower, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart, would affect the music industry just as it does most every other aspects of business.
Wal-Mart is indeed the largest music retailer in the country, but particularly pop and country music. In fact, “Some label executives estimate that Wal-Mart is responsible for 50% of the (country music) genre's sales.” (Goldman, 2006) For the most part it is a great convenience that Wal-Mart carries music. Just like all areas of merchandise they carry, Wal-Mart is able to carry quite a large number of compact discs. Also, like other areas of inventory, the CDs are typically cheaper than most other record stores. This all combines to be quite convenient for the customer who can drop by their local Wal-Mart and pick up practically any CD they might want, at a quite reasonable price. Also, it is a common occurrence that in small towns Wal-Mart may be the only music retailer in town
On the flip side, however, one has to realize how this is affecting the way the music industry has operated in our country for quite some time now. Located within reasonable distance in most any decent-sized town, throughout recent history, has been an indie record store. Whether it was vinyl records, 8-tracks, cassettes, or compact discs, the local record store has always been there to help out the customer. Typically these local record stores have been run by people who truly love music and are eager to help the customer find the band they are looking for, or to suggest a band that might be to their liking. Prices may have been a little on the higher side, but it has always been expected as the costs of upkeeping and operating small businesses is also quite high.
A problem arises for these indie record stores when Wal-Mart comes to town. In addition to buying inventory in bulk quantities, Wal-Mart is also able to demand low prices from music distributors. Due to their massive size, Wal-Mart is usually able to get their way. It is necessary for them to buy their goods at low prices so that they can pass on the savings to the customer. Wal-Mart thrives off low prices no matter what the item being sold is.
When the main inventory the local record store has in stock is music, they obviously live or die off of music sales at their store. Wal-Mart, on the other hand, can afford to price their music incredibly low. In many cases they actually lose money on the compact discs, selling them for less than they paid to buy them from the distributor for. The local record store obviously cannot afford to lose money on their music inventory.
When the customer has to decide whether to buy the music they have been looking for at Wal-Mart at a lower price, or the local independent record store at a slightly higher price, most of the time they’ll go to Wal-Mart to save money. When enough customers think this way, the record stores will have lost most of their business and go out of business. The people who are truly passionate about music end up getting shoved aside by Wal-Mart and their associates who most likely are only in the music department because their manager said “Hey Billy, you’re going to work in the music department.”
As if this weren’t impacting the music industry enough, Wal-Mart is actually starting to take on the role of a record company itself. One has to look no further than the music of country music superstar Garth Brooks. After realizing how much it would save, Wal-Mart decided to purchase the rights to the entire discography of the country legend, including both past, present, and future music. Upon being asked what she thought of Wal-Mart having exclusive rights to Garth Brooks’ collection, one customer states, “I have to go to Wal-Mart anyway for other stuff, so I probably would have picked it up from Wal-Mart anyhow."(Goldman, 2006). Brooks himself points out the benefit for the customer in saying, “To get a box (his box-set) out like that for $25 just shows me that these guys are not just eliminating the middleman and keeping the middleman's money — that makes me feel very good.” (Goldman, 2006).
Another popular topic of discussion regarding Wal-Mart and the music industry is the types of music that they choose to carry. To quote Wal-Mart’s official music policy, “Wal-Mart Stores, Sam's Club and Walmart.com (collectively ‘Wal-Mart’) do not carry recordings designated with the Parental Advisory Label.” “Wal-Mart carries certain recordings designated as Edited and marks these recordings as such on the applicable album or item page of the Walmart.com website.” (Music Content Policy, 2006)
This may seem rather insignificant that Wal-Mart does not stock objectionable compact discs, but when one realizes the scale of everything that Wal-Mart operates on, this actually has a great impact on the music industry. Whether we like it or not, it is a fact that many of the best-selling artists use objectionable language, have provocative cover-art, or have controversial or sexual themes. When Wal-Mart refuses to stock a disc because it is not “family friendly” that means that the record label is not just losing sales at a single store, they are losing sales at every Wal-Mart in the country where the disc would normally be sold.
This potential loss in sales obviously does not benefit the artist’s record labels. The labels typically want to get their artists’ music on store shelves everywhere no matter what it takes. This means that often times by Wal-Mart demanding clean versions of records, the record label will be pressured into submitting to Wal-Mart’s demands in an effort to not lose sales, and consequently the artist will have their original material altered differently than was originally intended in the explicit version. As stated in the New York Times, “Because of Wal-Mart's clout, record labels and bands will design different covers and booklets, omit songs from their albums, electronically mask objectionable words and even change lyrics in order to gain a place on Wal-Mart's shelves.”(Strauss, 1996).
This also affects the buyer who may or may not want the amended version of the music. Music fan Adam McLean, 13, said in 1996 to the New York Times, “They blank out all the words they think are bad. I hate it. It doesn't sound the same.” Even Adam’s mother opposed Wal-Mart’s handling of their music inventory in saying “It should be my decision (whether to buy the explicit or amended version) instead of theirs.”(Strauss, 1996).
From an artist’s perspective, it is easy to see why there might be some frustration when Wal-Mart, and, in turn, record labels, ask the artists to censor their material. When asked upon his feelings toward Wal-Mart, rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy commented, “It's ridiculous that Wal-Mart asks you to clean up your music, yet they sell guns. They need to wipe out that contradiction.” (Morse, 1996)
Although it is true that most Wal-Mart’s do not sell guns, the analogy that Chuck D presents can be used in other examples. I personally made a trip to Wal-Mart the other weekend to take a first-hand look at the music inventory. I was impressed that I could not find one disc with a parental advisory label on it, meaning that they clearly are sticking to their rules. Any disc that would normally be considered controversial was labeled as “edited,” “clean” or “amended”.
I did find it interesting, however, that a few racks away from the compact discs was the DVD aisle filled with “Unrated” movies. I would hardly consider the American Pie series to be up to par with Wal-Mart’s strict morals, yet these movies and those similar are still easily accessible at Wal-Mart. As Chuck D mentioned with the guns example, I find that Wal-Mart’s selling of controversial movies but not controversial music is contradicting their morals.
There have been many artists who have pushed the limits and thereby had to face the consequences on Wal-Mart’s shelves. “Alternative pop singer Beck agreed to delete an obscenity the F word for a cleaned-up version of his first album, "Mellow Gold". “The Butthole Suffers agreed to change their name to B*** II*** Surfers on CD jackets. John Mellencamp recently agreed to airbrush out images of Jesus Christ and the devil on his latest CD, "Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky.” (Morse, 1996).
Even the cover art on rockers’ White Zombie’s release “Super Sexy Swingin’ Sounds” was adjusted to meet Wal-Mart’s demands. The cover art originally depicted a nude (although no obscenities were shown) woman lying down on a hammock. To make it on Wal-Mart’s shelves the art, a bikini had to be airbrushed onto the woman. Rob Zombie, the front-man for White Zombie’s response to this was “I know that Wal-Mart stocks bottles of shampoo with more nudity than our album cover". “I didn't do it [give into censorship] for Wal-Mart, but for the kids who have no other' way of getting the music.” (Morse, 1996).
On the same day that I made the trip to Wal-Mart’s CD aisle in addition to looking for parental advisory stickers, I also went in search of controversial cover art. I had remembered reading in an article that one of the best selling CD’s of all-time, Nirvana’s Nevermind, had the cover art censored at Wal-Mart stores. I wanted to see this first hand so I looked through the “N” titles until I found Nirvana. Sure enough the cover art that I had seen probably a hundred times at practically ever other music store, with a nude baby swimming in a pool, had in this particular case a big sticker over the baby’s genitalia. I found this to be a prime example of censorship in action.
Whether Wal-Mart’s dominance over the music industry is good for the artists, record labels, and consumers is for the best or not is really a matter of opinion. One also has to examine all aspects of the story, and decide what values are most important to society. If consumers solely want shelves full of affordable music, then Wal-Mart is great for society. However, if society wants unedited music that is brought by people who truly love the music industry, then perhaps it is best to look elsewhere. Whether we like it or not, Wal-Mart appears to be taking a hold of the music industry just like most every other aspect of business and it’s our duty to either continue support of them or to take the opposite stance. For the time being, however, it appears to be a Wal-Mart dominated world, and music lovers will have to continue living side beside with the retail giant.
References
Goldman, A. (2006, January 26). wal-mart buys monopoly of garth brooks' music. Los
Angeles Times. Retrieved April 21, 2006, from http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/walmart/2006/garth_music_exclusive.php
Morse, S. (1996, August 6). Up against the
wal-mart. Boston Globe, p. c13.
Music Content Policy. Retrieved April 22, 2006, from Wal-Mart's
Content Policy Web site http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=195963
Strauss, N. (1996, November 12). Wal-mart's cd
standards are changing
pop music. New York Times.
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