MORE CHINESE DEMOCRACY RUMORS
Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 12:15pm by Axl RosenbergSpeaking of Bob Lefsetz, he reported awhile back that his GN’R source told him the that the plan to sell Chinese Democracy exclusively at Best Buy was a done deal. The rumor has been picking up steam and with the band’s new song, “Shackler’s Revenge,” currently making its debut on video game consoles everywhere as part of Rock Band 2, it seemed like maybe there was a legit chance of the album finally coming out; then again, that’s what GN’R fans thought in 1999, when the song “Oh My God” appeared on the End of Days soundtrack.
Now Rolling Stone is adding fire to the flame, going so far as to announce an unofficial release date for the hotly anticipated album:
“[R]umor is that the long-awaited album will be released exclusively through Best Buy on November 25th. The source of the multi-tiered rumors is a supposed ‘vendor convention’ that Best Buy had on Wednesday in Dallas, Texas. Reportedly, Guns manager Andy Gould told the 900 employees the news about Chinese Democracy before previewing three songs from the album.”
Gould also allegedly told convention goers that a new song, “If the World” – which actually leaked back in June – would appear in the upcoming Ridley Scott film Body of Lies (Oddly enough, Scott had wanted to use GN’R’s “Welcome to the Jungle” in his earlier film Black Hawk Down, and was denied the rights by Axl Rose.).
As with all things GN’R-related, this should all be taken with a grain – no, a half-grain – of salt until someone with more authority than a Best Buy employee who may or may not have actually been in the room when Gould may or may not have actually made these announcements confirms the rumors. In the meantime, if you’re interested, here’s the trailer for Body of Lies:
UPDATE: Billboard now confirms that Best Buy will be the exclusive retailer for Chinese Democracy, but does not have a set release date.
-AR
I’m more excited to get my free Dr. Pepper
You know, after hearing Shackler’s Revenge on RB2, i’m actually pretty interested in hearing the rest of the album. The guitar work is awesome, the chorus is catchy, and overall the song is pretty surprisingly good. It doesn’t sound like it’s going to be a masterpiece of an album that required fifty years to create (or however long) but it sounds like it will be a good listen.
Isn’t ramping up for a Best Buy exclusive kind of like buying stock in Hollywood Video? Best Buy is scaling DOWN their CD sales dept. The top two music retailers are iTunes and Wal-mart. Way to go Axl Rose. We’re number 3! We’re number 3!
@ Sammy: My understanding of a deal like this – and someone can correct me if I’m wrong – is that the band gets basically a licensing fee up front. Axl can’t sell 18 million copies anymore, he can’t sell 7 million copies, he’ll be lucky to sell a million – not just b/c he’s not as popular as he once was, but b/c very few artists sell a million copies anymore, let alone move the ginormous numbers GN’R did in their heyday. And the album allegedly cost around $15 mil to make. So if Best Buy offered him X millions of dollars for the right to sell it exclusively, it’s totally worth it for him b/c he recoups (or at least partially recoups) immediately and doesn’t have to worry about his career ending – now he can go back into hiding for another decade and a half. Plus Best Buy will promote the shit out of the album. And it’s worth it for Best Buy b/c they know that, at least for the first week or whatever, every GN’R fan and even some curious non-GN’R fans will come into the store and hopefully buy other, more expensive crap. I imagine that was the thinking behind the deal… assuming there is a deal.
@ Axl: Yes, I would think your understanding is correct. It was probably shopped around and that was the best buy (pun intended) they could put together. I don’t think iTunes/Apple make such deals, and Wal-mart may or may not have been in the bidding. Plus Wal-mart tends to play it safe and I’m not sure how “safe” a long-delayed Chinese Democracy is.
So you’re probably correct. But you know me, I never miss an opportunity to use mean sarcasm. Hell, that’s the best reason to come to this great site of yours.
Welcome to the Jungle was denied because Axl would only allow it on the condition that it was a rerecording with his new version of the band.
I work at Best Buy. My supervisor was at that meeting. I’ll have to see what i can find out. Then again, he was PROBABLY drunk off his ass…
@MetalSucks Admins:
The story was also posted @ Billboard:
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003855688
@Sammy:
The Best Buy deal will help recoup the recording expenses for the album. Even though the $14 million is divided 4 albums of material which balances out to $3.5 mil per record, that’s still some decent coin.
An iTunes release is definitely very, very important, so for Axl’s sake he put a clause stating the physical release would be exclusive to Best Buy, while online release is a different story.