BandRadio logo

 
Home arrow News arrow Industry News arrow Victory Records Scandal
Victory Records Scandal PDF Print E-mail
User Rating: / 7
PoorBest 
Written by Mike Stahl   
Thursday, 02 March 2006
Yesterday an email allegedly sent out by Victory Records to its street team has quite a few people wondering just how far the label will go to get a number 1 on the BillBoard Charts. Just how far would they go? And then see what came out after that email.

Read the email:

"Happy Hawthorne Heights day everyone - street date has finally arrived!

It all comes down to the next six days and maximizing our sales at as
many stores as possible. We are neck-and-neck with this Ne-yo
character on Universal and we need everyone out there tilting the tide
in our favor. Our projected numbers for first week sales are about
even so we really need to make every unit count if we want to win.

We do this first by selling more Hawthorne Heights, hitting as many
stores as possible, making sure Hawthorne Heights stock is in the
front and very visible in every store we visit. Get inside, do what
you need to do, and move on to the next store. Move Hawthorne Heights
into as many key positions as you can. Remember there are two covers
so not only put them together, put them in different places. HH should
have spots in all the new release racks toward the front of the store
but we can always increase our presence by dropping a few in another
displays.

If you don't see our product on display at the front of the store,
particularly later in the week, then go to the bin and move what you
can. There are a lot of stores that are not as on top of this as they
should be, especially something as hot as Hawthorne Heights, so we
need to give these people all the help they can get.

Also look for HH in the areas where stores keep overstock. Sometimes
this is below the bins or on the top of the rack. If you find any CDs,
particularly under the bins, try to move those out first to the other
areas of the store.

On the off chance you find a store that doesn't have any copies of the
new Hawthorne, find a clerk and ask him why they don't have it. If
it's sold out, find out when they have more coming in. If it's showing
as in stock, let him know that you can't find it so he knows to order
more.

Here is a list of the best chain stores to go to:


Best Buy

Target

Wal Mart

FYE

Coconuts

Wherehouse

Circuit City

Sam's Club

K Mart

Sam Goody

Virgin Borders

Borders

Barnes & Noble

Fred Meyer

Hastings

Meijer



As for Ne-yo, the name of the game is to decrease the chances of a
sale here. If you were to pick up handful of Ne-yo CDs, as if you
were about to buy them, but then changed your mind and didn't bother
to put them back in the same place, that would work. Even though this
record will be heavily stocked and you might not be able to move all
the stock, just relocating a handful creates issues: Even though the
store will appear to be out of stock, the computer will see it as in
stock and not re-order the title once it sells down and then Ne-Yo
will lose a few sales later in the week



This is most important in stores were we are competing with Ne-yo,
which is in the big chains that sell pop and urban product. The stores
listed above are in the order you should hit them up.



The main thing is to keep the pressure up all week. First day sales
are important but keeping our sales going and having a strong weekend
are equally important to grabbing the #1 slot that belongs to us.



Please be sure to email me this week and let me know which stores you
have gone to and worked your magic at.



Thanks everyone,

Abby



Victory at all costs, Victory in spite of all terror, Victory however
long and hard the road may be; for without Victory, there is no
survival.

This email was allegedly sent out later to the street team:

=========================================
From: Abby XXXXXX
Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2006 3:02 PM
To: Abby XXXXXX
Subject: Street Team 3/1



I hope you guys all realize that this email was a joke! Some of you got it but for those of you that did not I guess my sense of humor may only seem funny to me. If any of you are confused by any of this call me and don’t take things so literally! If I asked you to stand up and do 100 jumping jacks while holding your breath I highly doubt that you would listen! But seriously, call anyway as I do not want anything taken out of context. Shame on my sense of humor!



Thanks guys

-Abby 

 

Is Victory Records going too far to prove itself or is this just something that other labels do? We'd love to see your comments below.

MTV has posted a story
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1525066/20060228/hawthorne_heights.jhtml
 





Digg!Reddit!Del.icio.us!Google!Live!Facebook!Slashdot!Netscape!Technorati!StumbleUpon!Newsvine!Furl!Yahoo!
Comments (0) >>
Write comment
quote
bold
italicize
underline
strike
url
image
quote
quote
Smiley
Smiley
Smiley
Smiley
Smiley
Smiley
Smiley
Smiley
Smiley
Smiley
Smiley
Smiley


Write the displayed characters


Last Updated ( Thursday, 02 March 2006 )
 
< Prev   Next >

Search

Featured

Products

Poll

Do you plan to still manufacture cds or just go digital?
 
If offered a Major Label deal would you take it?
 

© 2008 BandRadio