Country duo Sugarland has another No. 1 album with the CD/DVD package "Live on the Inside," but in a slow sales week, the emphasis shifts to how the product was sold rather than how many copies have been sold.
For the live follow-up to last year's "Love on the Inside," Sugarland took a page from the likes of AC/DC, Guns N' Roses, Christina Aguilera, the Eagles, Bruce Springsteen and Prince to go the exclusive retail route. Initial returns for Sugarland are modest, as Wal-Mart-exclusive "Live on the Inside" sold 76,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
But the Atlanta-area band drew some heat earlier this week from its local indie shop Decatur CD. The store's owner, Warren Hudson, criticized the band on the company blog, writing to Sugarland that "by shutting the door on independent record stores, you’re in effect shutting the door on your hometown."
"We’re not trying to put the band in the cross hairs, by any means," Hudson said to Pop & Hiss this morning. "I have no doubt that Wal-Mart is one of the best avenues for this band. We just happen to be in the town where the band got their start. We didn’t start the band, by any means, but we supported them from Day 1."
Retail exclusives remain a controversial topic. For bands and labels, it's an instant payday, as retailers pay for the exclusivity, plus sales to the retailer are often one way, meaning they are not returnable to the distributor. Yet the practice blocks mom-and-pop, music-specific outlets from selling the CD, and limits a fan's buying options.
Additionally, the corporate partnerships often seem -- at least on the surface -- to go against rock idealism. Springsteen, for instance, told the New York Times that selling a Wal-Mart-exclusive greatest hits package was a "mistake," adding that “given [Wal-Mart's] labor history, it was something that if we’d thought about it a little longer, we’d have done something different.”
Pearl Jam, for its upcoming "Backspacer," due Sept. 20, walked a careful line. The album, the band's first outside the major label system, is a Target exclusive, with qualifications. The album will continue to be available at indie shops and Apple's iTunes store -- just not at Best Buy and Wal-Mart.
Hudson points to such a solution as a workable arrangement, and chided Sugarland for not going a similar route. Sugarland's Kristian Bush appears to have heard Hudson's complaint, as a user named "Kristian" responded on the blog, writing that Hudson was right, and that he would come by the store with a couple boxes of CDs and "peel off the Wal-Mart stickers together while we catch up."
Hudson says he hasn't made an effort to verify whether or not Bush was the one who did indeed post. Pop & Hiss reached out to Sugarland's management, but has yet to receive confirmation or denial. Nevertheless, Hudson has no doubt it was indeed Bush who wrote in, and says he will not be upset if the artist isn't able to make it to the store.
"I’m pretty sure that was him," Hudson said. "He’s been in this store. But we haven’t heard a thing, and it’s completely up to them -- how they want to do it. I wouldn’t think less of them, regardless of what they did. The principal of the idea has been put out there now."
"Live on the Inside" isn't on par with Sugarland's recent numbers, but that likely has more to do with the lack of new studio material than the album's availability at retail. About a year ago, the act's "Love on the Inside" debuted at No. 2 on the U.S. pop charts after it sold 314,000 copies in its first week. The album sold 485,000 copies in its first two weeks in stores.
Elsewhere on the charts:
