In my previous post, I wrote about the new KISS album that will be released in the U.S. on October 6.
According to KISS Online, their upcoming album (titled “Sonic Boom) will be released in the U.S. on October 6…and available exclusively at Wal-Mart.
What does that mean? Regular record stores in the U.S. aren’t going to sell it? It’ll only be sold at one chain of stores?
I’ve never heard of something like that before. Has that become common in America? Why?
In Japan, record stores are still common. I’m sure the new KISS album will be available in every record (CD) store across Japan once it’s released here.
Speaking of which, I wonder when the album will be released in Japan? And when KISS will bring the Sonic Boom Tour to Japan.
Anyways, the album cover artwork for “Sonic Boom” was designed by Michael Doret.
KISS "Sonic Boom" album cover
Michael Doret designed the iconic cover for the KISS album “Rock And Roll Over” back in 1976 and he was asked by Paul Stanley to design their new album cover, too.
KISS "Rock And Roll Over" album cover (1976)
Last April, Michael Doret did an interview with me (Click here)…
and today he did another interview with me!
Click here to read it.
I would describe my design for “Sonic Boom” as “Rock and Roll Over” turned inside out.
— Michael Doret
Tokyo Five 
I just received an email from Michael Doret today.
He wrote:
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Yeah…the local drug store became a Walgreens.
The local “5 and dime” became a Family Dollar.
The local Pizza place became a Dominos.
There are always small businesses (hair salons, restaurants) but they tend to come and go a lot.
The “big” independent record store that we would go to when growing up is gone…so now all they have is Target, K-Mart and Wal-Mart to buy music.
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>Yeah…the local drug store became a Walgreens.
There are still plenty of small drug stores in Japan…and the big 「まつもときよし」 chain drug stores too.
>The local “5 and dime” became a Family Dollar.
There are plenty of traditional Japanese shops that are like the equivalent to the U.S. “Five and dimes”…and there are plenty of “¥100 Shops” (which are like the “Dollar Stores” in the U.S…but only better!).
>The local Pizza place became a Dominos.
Pizza is a western import. But it’s done “Japanese style” here, of course.
(My daughter works at “Dominos“).
>The “big” independent record store that we would go to when growing up is gone
It’s surprising to me!
In Japan, Tower Records, HMV, Disc Union…as well as small privately owned record stores are all still doing fine.
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I grew up in a small town. when I was a kid ALL the businesses were small/locally owned. I go back to visit ever 4 or 5 years and now most of the businesses are of the larger corporate variety.
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>most of the businesses are of the larger corporate variety.
That’s too bad.
Tokyo’s a huge city…and it still has alot of small, traditional shops.
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I’m sure they DO want it.
While I completely support what Wal-Mart does in a “free market” society, there is no doubt that this is the kind of thing that crushes small business.
(While the way Wal-Mart does business is somewhat despicable and borderline immoral, in a free market society it is all perfectly legal…and should be.)
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More and more smaller businesses are closing in Japan too. But not to the extent that I imagine it’s happening in America.
There are still many old, traditional shops going strong in Japan…but not like it used to be when all the shops were small.
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A- Wal-Mart will give name-brand artists a larger cut of the profits IF they sell their merchandise exclusively through their store.
(Artists like it because they make more money selling fewer albums)
B- Record company only has about a dozen distribution locations to deliver to. (Savings on transport and logistics.)
C- Wal-Mart will be the only source of purchase, so they will make more money on volume. (Making up the difference they lose in paying the artists more.)
D- Wal-Mart will sell unrelated merchandise to those stopping in to buy the artist CD. (Statistically, especially for big box stores, consumers will almost always buy more than the single item they specifically came to purchase.)
E- Promotionally, Wal-Mart will advertise and give prime retail real-estate. Other retailers would have stocked the KISS album, but not necessarily promoted it. (Artists like this because it moves more of their product and makes them look like a “big deal”.)
F- Marketing…in the past few weeks reading about KISS Sonic Boom, how many:
– news articles have there been?
– internet articles
– magazine articles
…and they ALL mention 2 things, KISS and Wal-Mart…it’s called FREE ADVERTISING.
I could keep going.
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I see what you’re saying. But what about record stores? Wouldn’t record stores want to have the latest albums in stock?
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Yes, it can only be purchased at Walmart. This has become very common practice in the USA. Guns N Roses, AC/DC, and Chickenfoot all did it with their most recent releases. I’m not a fan of the practice.
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That’s strange.
What benefit for a band is there is only having one department store sell their CD?
Won’t record stores in America stock this album?
All of the record stores in Japan will, I’m sure. Especially Tower Records, HMV, Disc Union, etc.
And I looked at your site.
I noticed that you have a YouTube clip of the sample of the new KISS song.
Here’s the full-version:
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>Guns N Roses, AC/DC, and Chickenfoot all did it with their most recent releases.
Those albums are available in every CD store around Japan.
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