Various Artists News

A slate of new superstar releases has the recording industry hopeful for robust shopping on Black Friday, even as physical retailers focus greater attention on DVD and videogame releases.

Widely anticipated Thanksgiving-week releases include Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy," Nicki Minaj's "Pink Friday," Ke$ha's "Cannibal," Ne-Yo's "Libra Scale" and My Chemical Romance's "Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys."

They join a host of recently released titles that are also expected to continue doing brisk sales, including Rihanna's "Loud," Susan Boyle's "The Gift," Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" and Cee-Lo Green's "The Lady Killer."

"The release schedule, which looked bad back in the summer, is pretty OK and it's maybe better than last year," Universal Music Group Distribution president/CEO Jim Urie said.

The head of sales at another label agrees: "There is a decent mood out there, certainly better than it was 90 days ago."

Overall U.S. consumer sentiment appears to be somewhat better than last year, according to the results of a National Retail Federation survey that found that about 138 million consumers expect to shop during the Black Friday weekend, which follows the U.S. Thanksgiving Day holiday next week, up slightly from 134 million who planned to last year.

But most retailers are focusing their promotional firepower for entertainment products on DVDs and videogames rather than music.

"Gaming is leading the pack this year, with video right behind it," Trans World VP of music and new media Ish Cuebas said. "Every year, video gets more dominant, with movie vendors putting together aggressive pricing programs."

An executive at another mass merchant says, "The video guys get aggressive every year to take advantage of Black Friday. The music guys do nothing. They just sit back and wait for the hammer to fall."

Black Friday sales circulars reflect far more real estate dedicated to DVDs and videogames than music.

Best Buy is featuring six albums for $6.99: Bon Jovi's "Greatest Hits," Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream," Maroon 5's "Hands All Over," Rihanna's "Loud," Keith Urban's "Get Closer" and Carole King & James Taylor's "Live at the Troubadour." Target's circular features only three titles, all priced at $6.50 and none of them released this year: Lady Antebellum's self-titled album, Guns 'N Roses' "Greatest Hits" and Eminem's "Curtain Call."

"That's just silly," said a senior executive at a rival retailer who doesn't want to be quoted discussing pricing. "They don't need to go that low. It's not like the days when Circuit City was still around and they ran every CD in the store at a $9.99 sale all day, back when most CDs carried a $12 cost."

Among major retailers, music specialty retailer Hastings Entertainment will run the most extensive Black Friday advertising for music, touting in its circular a four-hour Black Friday morning sale featuring $18.99-list single CDs for $8.99 each (limit two per customer).

Hastings is also offering $3 off any CD priced at $10.99 or higher and a $8.99 price on Lil Wayne's "I Am Not a Human Being," Elton John and Leon Russell's "The Union," Ke$ha's "Animal," Rascal Flatts' "Nothing Like This," Kid Cudi's "Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Roger" and Linkin Park's "A Thousand Suns." And it has assorted CDs, including Soundgarden's "Badmotorfinger" and Rush's "2112," for $4.99 and others by Janis Joplin, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash for $2.99.

Meanwhile, the November 4 release of Microsoft's Kinect has sparked renewed interest in videogames. Despite Kinect's arrival, Newbury Comics CEO Mike Dreese argues that there aren't any compelling game titles this year because of an abundance of supply.

Dreese downplays the importance of Black Friday, saying that his chain's sales are typically only 30 percent greater than an average Saturday. He adds that in 2009, Newbury generated more daily sales on 12 different days between Thanksgiving and Christmas than it did on Black Friday.

Nielsen SoundScan data appears to bear out Dreese's observation. In 2009, Thanksgiving week was only the fifth-largest sales week for music, with U.S. unit sales of 10.7 million.

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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