Guns n` Roses `Chinese Democracy` is a disaster in week two. USA sales for the album fell 78% this week, according to Hitsdailydouble.com.
Hits has the album heading for number 17 this week, after debuting last week at number 3.The real stinger for the album is being felt by Best Buy, the exclusive retailer for the album in the US. Best Buy bought 1.5 million units of ‘Chinese Democracy’ at 9 bucks a pop and still have more than 1.1 million sitting around in the warehouse.
That is more than $10 million in stock that isn’t moving and can’t be returned.
To do the exclusive deal, the chain had to agree to the upfront order on a no-returns basis.
By comparison, AC/DC’s ‘Black Ice’ in its 7th week on the chart sold more than ‘Chinese Democracy’ in its second week.
I know there is a lot of damage control going on with this one. Bob Chiappardi of Concrete Marketing is quoted in Music Radar today saying, “once the smoke clears, it’ll rise to the top”. Bob, what are you smoking? This album couldn’t make a comeback even if you downloaded it to Jesus Christ’s iPod and had him playing it to the converted on Easter Sunday.
I’m glad ‘Chinese Democracy’ was finally released. Personally, I think three of the tracks are ball-tearers. But let’s not expect any miracles moving forward.
There will be a lot of debate and debriefing internally over what went wrong. Putting a “it’s still going to happen” spin on it is just laughable.
