Negotiations with Wal-Mart, Best Buy under way
NEW YORK -- The June outflow of nine-spot allegedly "down pat, finished" tracks from Guns N' Roses' long-delayed "Chinese Democracy" spurred a renewed round of chatter about whether the Axl Rose-led band volition finally acquittance the 14-years-in-the-making album.
But some concrete signs are finally emerging that the album's release could be imminent. That's because, according to sources, negotiations are under way for "Chinese Democracy" to fall out as an exclusive at one of the big boxes -- either Wal-Mart or Best Buy.
Negotiations are too ongoing to have conventional record caller distribution, some other source said.
Guns N' Roses is now managed by Irving Azoff's Front Line Management, and Azoff is a well-known proponent of issuing albums exclusively through retailers. He released the Eagles' "Long Road Out of Eden" through Wal-Mart, much to the humiliation of other merchants.
Most of late, it became known that AC/DC's next album will come proscribed exclusively through Wal-Mart. Merchants were peculiarly incensed that the deal was on the face of it struck with the benediction of Columbia.
It's unclear wHO initiated the Guns N' Roses exclusive negotiations -- Front Line or Interscope, the band's label.
Representatives at Front Line and Interscope with cognition of the situation couldn't be reached for comment by deadline. A Wal-Mart representative says the mountain chain couldn't reassert this fall's exclusives. Best Buy representatives couldn't be reached for comment by deadline.
