Concerns of the album's release date from a music store employee

[ben9785]

If theres a 'two-week notice', something should pop up today.

Hmm that's the general expectation..But if their plan is to have notice prior to the release of the album, really they need to give notice as much as possible, but if there is an announcement they may only do it at short notice prior to the release of the album whenever it is...I don't know though the possibilities are endless.. fuck knows what their plan is or what they want to pull off

[Hoggsg2]

just a thought, like some of the others, what if the details are in the system but under a different name?
im not sure if this could be done but say some details such as artist, albu etc were changed to some 'fake' names.
wouldnt this solve the problems od shelving etc as last minute details could be changed and 'bang' the selving etc is already available?

[Jonx]

I think CD needs to be looked at in a very different light to other releases 14 years and $13+ million on an album is unheard of in the music buisness today! The Guns campe wont want this to leak and the best way to go about doing this is to keep everything stum until the last minute, we all know they are good at doing that. Universal, who took CD off Geffens hands in late 2002 will be using their top people to get this out, it wont leak once its pressed because they will use their own CD houses, it will probably be shipped to stores and the first anyone will know about it will be when they open the blank boxes on Sunday evening. They have made it clear that there isnt going to be any heavy promotion, its not how they want to do things. By not telling stores all they are going to do is miss out on instore promotion on the first day of release, that doesnt really matter in the itunes world. CD will be a slow seller, management have probably settled on that. Axl has done all the hype of a major album release, UYI was such a huge seller on the first day of release, maybe he just wants to do something different this time, or maybe he realises that the music buisness has become complete shit these days and just wants to put out a CD in his own way. I for one am in favour of that!

Jonx

[Dr. Blutarsky]

No one will not buy it  if it doesnt come out in 2006. We'll be pissed, but we'll still buy it.

[The Legend]

For it to still happen in 2006, it'd have to just drop in stores with no promotion.

With this band, I wouldn't be shocked if that happened.

[guns_n_motley]

For it to still happen in 2006, it'd have to just drop in stores with no promotion.

With this band, I wouldn't be shocked if that happened.

with GNR, you cant expect stuff like "well we dont have it on our list"

gnr is gonna do the unconventional...

[The Legend]

For it to still happen in 2006, it'd have to just drop in stores with no promotion.

With this band, I wouldn't be shocked if that happened.

with GNR, you cant expect stuff like "well we dont have it on our list"

gnr is gonna do the unconventional...

Exactly. With Guns N' Roses, ALWAYS expect the unexpected.

[norway]

The OP doubts CD will be released this year cause...-
- the record-chain he works for won't be able to put it on the "New releases" shelve this year

It is perfectly possible they relase the album when planned anyway I assure you

[god of thunder]

Everything is different with this album...so I do not really think that we can expect a "regular" campaign. CD is most likely the most expensive album and Geffen/Universal has 2 opportunities: Write off the money, put the album out whenever and see how it sells.
The other opportunity would be a blitz campaign and I do think that Universal has the market power to do that and push CD in the stores on very short notice. Lets hope for the later.

Anyways...in the end we just have to wait (for another 13 years:)) and see...

[blues rocker]

the album is not coming out this year...it was just a load of crap they fed us so that we'd get exited about the tour...fuck them

[meanmachine73]

If Universal want to push Chinese Democracy at short notice(1 week) the record stores will have no alternative but to give it 100% support and promotion. For example, virgin records plays hardball, says that they can't give floor space to a GN'R Promotion. Universal tells them that they don't get the special limited edition CD release of one of their other artists for a forthcoming release.

[Journeyman]

Not to beat a dead horse, I know people have been bitching about whether it'll be out for real or not this year. I've been totally stoked and when people said the album wasn't coming this year, there was always the successful tour to fall back on. People said it's another 2002, but there was always the fact that, hey, they aren't canceling... But now after only eight shows they are. Knowing Axl's behavior, I doubt it has to do with pyro limitations. Someone on another website claims Axl was pissed that there weren't enough tickets sold, and as a result refused to play for a minimal crowd.

I think he only has himself to blame - he maybe felt a surge of confidence because of strong overseas ticket sales, but that's Europe. He should have learned from 2002 that America is different and he can't rely upon the name alone to tour. They need an album to promote or mainstream America won't be turning out like the Europeans did.

My concern is that, as an employee at a music store, I know it's impossible for an album to drop and not give stores a month's notice at least. ESPECIALLY around Christmas. At our store we have a music catalog system which is universal and is updated months in advance of when an album is going to be released. For example, we have all new releases listed up through early 2007, and those that are undetermined have a listed release date of "2025," but this means they are confirmed as upcoming? releases without a solid date. CD doesn't even have a 2025 release date, which means it hasn't even been verified as an upcoming release. One would imagine if they want to keep the exact date a surprise, Merck still would have at least confirmed the album 100% for release this year. The fact that it's not even listed at all is hardly reassuring.

The thing is, you can't drop an album with a week's notice. The reason we have album releases dates up through Feb 07 is because stores require advance notice. Shelving and promotions are scheduled. You can't announce an album a week in advance - there will be no room for the album in stores and it will get shelved somewhere where it isn't even visible. And the new releases won't be shelved under Guns N' Roses because you can't fit more than a few albums under an artist header card - stores don't devote an entire wall just to GN'R. So they're going to get stuck with three copies of Chinese Democracy under the GN'R section and the rest will be in overstock.

Everything was going great, but first the thing with the website happened. They promised video, it wasn't delivered, and then they just completely removed it. And there haven't been any significant updates in weeks, save one, which was swiftly deleted for no explanatory reason. It doesn't look too good when the official website fails to deliver promised material, the band cancels a show for curious reasons, and - as trollish as this sounds - they honestly aren't selling out tickets as expected. There's no album confirmed yet and we're nearing the middle of the month already. We have a month and a half left before the end of the year, and if they're going to release it this year it's almost guaranteed that they would do so before Christmas, which really just gives us mid-November through early-December. If this is happening stores will have to receive notice I'd say within the next week - or else stores will refuse to carry stock, and those that do agree to last-minute stock will have no room for the album and multiple copies will be shoved into overstock.

I just thought I'd add a different perspective to this. I want you all to know every day at work I search our catalog database for Chinese Democracy. It's not just connected to our store, it's basically a universal database powered by AllMusicGuide, so it's completely up-to-date. We don't have GN'R scheduled on any print-out sheets for the end-of-the-year promotion - other albums are already reserved spots on the floor and New Release shelves.

I always search for CD in the hopes that, one day, it will be listed. But as every day passes, from a realistic standpoint it becomes less...well...realistic.

Its not like that. I have friends in some important stores and they all say 2 weeks notice is enough for the stores to be prepared for a special release like CD

[Meanmachine22]

If Universal want to push Chinese Democracy at short notice(1 week) the record stores will have no alternative but to give it 100% support and promotion. For example, virgin records plays hardball, says that they can't give floor space to a GN'R Promotion. Universal tells them that they don't get the special limited edition CD release of one of their other artists for a forthcoming release.

now that would be a way to pressure the record stores 
Actually i could imagine something like that to happen but i am not familliar with the procedure of "how to release a record" anyway.....
All that stuff is so confusing.....

[MR W,AXL ROSE]

what if chinese democracy "IS" on music stores upcoming albums list but its not down as chinese democracy or even guns n roses.they might just use a fake title in the industry just to get space on the shelves for its release.itd make sense and probebly wouldve stopped the release date being leaked up until CD actually arrives in the stores.can anyone look on those lists to see if theres any dodgy looking albums due for release on the 21st 

sometimes i make myself laugh reading the tripe myself and others come up with on this board

[Lesty]

I agree with the poster.
Working in advertising for a large US retailer, I can tell you that there is NO mention of a new GNR CD in any of our sunday circulars through mid-december. Everything in November has been printed, and our December ads are getting close.
The only way a "surprise" release date could happen, would be if it was digital (with iTunes).
I'm still holding out hope that they have something in the works, but I don't know what it could be.

touring in support of an album that doesn't exist seemed silly in 2002. Doing the same thing in 2006 (with the same supposed mystery album) is ridiculous. If I wasn't a diehard fan, I would be skeptical and/or laughing along with all the other naysayers.

[Jonx]

what if chinese democracy "IS" on music stores upcoming albums list but its not down as chinese democracy or even guns n roses.they might just use a fake title in the industry just to get space on the shelves for its release.itd make sense and probebly wouldve stopped the release date being leaked up until CD actually arrives in the stores.can anyone look on those lists to see if theres any dodgy looking albums due for release on the 21st 

sometimes i make myself laugh reading the tripe myself and others come up with on this board

They did that for UYI, i guess it could happen again!

[nonlinear]

I think CD needs to be looked at in a very different light to other releases 14 years and $13+ million on an album is unheard of in the music buisness today! The Guns campe wont want this to leak and the best way to go about doing this is to keep everything stum until the last minute, we all know they are good at doing that. Universal, who took CD off Geffens hands in late 2002 will be using their top people to get this out, it wont leak once its pressed because they will use their own CD houses, it will probably be shipped to stores and the first anyone will know about it will be when they open the blank boxes on Sunday evening. They have made it clear that there isnt going to be any heavy promotion, its not how they want to do things. By not telling stores all they are going to do is miss out on instore promotion on the first day of release, that doesnt really matter in the itunes world. CD will be a slow seller, management have probably settled on that. Axl has done all the hype of a major album release, UYI was such a huge seller on the first day of release, maybe he just wants to do something different this time, or maybe he realises that the music buisness has become complete shit these days and just wants to put out a CD in his own way. I for one am in favour of that!

Jonx

I agree that Guns doesn't want CD to leak, but I don't think that has anything to do with this situation.  Announcing a release date doesn't mean that it's easier to leak a CD....  Leaking goes by the same process regardless if there's a release date or not.  And it's not impossible to prevent leaks with a release date.  A recent example is Bob Dylan's Modern Times, which was way more anticipated than CD is (yea, i know a lot of you won't agree with that but it's true).  I was searching for leaks all week before it was released, and they weren't available until the weekend before the release.  I'm assuming that once they were delivered to the retail outlets, they were leaked.

But, what I'm saying is that none of this has to do with preventing a leak!  There are other problems here, like someone in the band said "someone could sneeze and delay the album" or whatever.  I'm sure the band is trying to release CD as soon as possible, but they don't want to confirm a release date because anything could happen and delay the album.

[Mikkamakka]

I agree with the thread poster and have only one thing to add to the conversation: I don't get this huge fear that the album will leak a week or two before its release.    Since everybody who's interested in the album will buy it sooner or later and every casual listeners who have no intention to buy it, just want to hear something off the new GN'R-record can easily download the whole shit the day when it gets released.

[dave-gnfnr2k]

its just gonna show up in stores one day

[slashisvr]

maybe it willbe released 01/01/07 in the UK thats a monday just to piss us off lol. it does seem like it isnt come out, but i do say here and now, if it doesnt come out this year, i will be abandoning GNR as much as i love them, too many lies and deceit has come from axl. this is his last chance for me.

not that he needs my support lol