Independent music stores across America are crying foul after Sony put up the cost of the vinyl edition of Black Ice by more than $3.
Originally, stores were quoted to pay $8.53 a piece wholesale for the L.P. version of the album but are now being charged $11.59, Undercover has been told.“This comes at a time when Sony announced they have lost $57 million and then spent an estimated $7.5 million on the official launch of the Black Ice album,” one retailer told Undercover.
The retailer claims that Sony flew people from all over the world to New York and then bused 3000 people to Wilkes-Barre for the launch, but no independent retailers were invited because the exclusive Wal-Mart deal had them frozen out.
“They spend all that money on a launch and then put the price of our stock up by more than $3 to pay it,” he claimed.
Sony came to an agreement with Indie retailers to release the vinyl version of Black Ice after it was learned that the Indies were planning on importing vast amounts of the album from other territories.
“They were forcing us to buy from everyone except them and then they go and use all of the money and increase the cost of the vinyl to the independent stores,” he said.
Initially, Argentina was targeted as a source of the stock since then, the recent economic crisis made Australia the preferred place of purchase.
“All of the Black Ice stock in independent stores across America came from Australia,” Undercover was told. “In the end, we got to buy it for $4 a unit cheaper than the wholesale price Sony America sells stock for. Even with freight, we can sell Black Ice cheaper than Wal-Mart.”
The Black Ice album debuted at number one in the USA this week after selling 782,000 units.
