Actually, I heard Don is very happy playing golf and doing benefit shows. He had one here locally in Cerritos, CA several months ago that featured many guest rockers, one being a Mr. Stephen Stills.
If Felder really wanted to record with another band again, I'm sure he would have no problem at all. Henley & Frey were idiots IMO to let him go. The Eagles will never sound as good as they once did.
The critically praised double album hit the big-box stores—as well as the Eagles' Website—last week. And per figures released Tuesday by Wal-Mart, Eden sold more than 700,000 copies in its first week. That's the second biggest opening sales week of the year, behind Kanye West's Graduation, which moved 957,000 copies in September, to the chagrin of 50 Cent.
Still, it'll be Spears' Blackout sitting atop the Billboard 200 despite selling a fraction as much—about 289,000, sources say.
Because of its exclusive arrangement with Wal-Mart, the Eagles' new album does not qualify for the Billboard 200. In fact, Billboard notes that titles "not generally available at retail" appear on the Top Comprehensive Albums chart instead, which covers catalog and proprietary releases. Fair or not, this means the Eagles will be a no-show on the Billboard 200, and Blackout will take the number one spot by default.
So Britney sells only 289K vs The Eagles 700K+ but Britney's camp will be able to say there #1.
I'm surprised The Eagles did this well considering the album was only available at Walmart.
_________________ "Every day a little sadder, A little madder, Someone get me a ladder."
ELP
“You can't have everything. Where would you put it?”—Steven Wright
Billboard Magazine Online Poll: Eagles Vs. Britney
To be honest, these numbers really surprise me. My opinion is that even though I despise Walmart, a sale is a sale......
This was conducted by Billboard on their website. I heard about it from their daily email.
"Poll Results Now counting sales from Wal-Mart, the Eagles beat Britney Spears for No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Do you think Billboard should include titles sold only through one retailer in the album chart tally?
No. The old method was tried and true, so it shouldn't include sales from acts like the Eagles who sold their album only through Wal-Mart stores. Britney, therefore, should have been No. 1 this week. 84%
Maybe. Billboard should have waited until more artists made exclusive deals with individual retailers to change the chart methodology. 4%
Yes. The music world is always evolving and Billboard should include sales numbers no matter where or how the albums were sold. If the Eagles sold more albums than Britney Spears, then the Eagles deserve No. 1, period. 12%
Well, one can expect to see this type of poll result when you have an artist with a huge internet following and umpteen fansites vs. a band consisting of bunch of white guys in their sixties...people certainly seem to despise the fact that Britney's career appears to be far from over if she can still sell that many copies of a CD despite a somewhat half-assed marketing campaign and no promotional tour whatsoever.
I'm guessing it's more industry folks responding to the poll; & I'll bet most of them own music businesses that aren't affiliated with Walmart! My take is that these results have nothing to do with fans of Britney or the Eagles, but that it shows a TON of resentment towards the Eagles & Walmart for cutting independent retailers & one stops out of the biggest release of the year.
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Of course, in googling the Eagles vs. Britney topic (and that's really what this is) there are pissed-off retailers to be found, and apparently some creative retailers as well. According to http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/page/2/ :
"When the Eagles announced that they would exclusively sell their new double album Long Road Out of Eden for an entire year at Wal-Mart (and their own Web site), fans across the nation — especially those in Wal-Mart-less towns like New York City and Los Angeles — wondered how they’d get their hands on copy without journeying to the retail giant. But then we heard whispers that people were finding the new “exclusive” album at small mom-and-pop record stores and, remarkably, big chains like Virgin Megastore. We investigated these claims and discovered that the CDs are indeed being sold outside of Wal-Mart. Not only that, it didn’t take speakeasy tactics to secure a copy; some stores were boasting the album by the dozen in front display cases, where new releases are usually showcased (see above, a shot from a New York City Virgin Megastore boasting a price sticker of $18.99). “We’re aware of that — I’ve heard that some stores here are selling imports,” Billboard charts editor Geoff Mayfield tells Rolling Stone. “Someone told me it was the third-best seller for Virgin.”
We called eight Virgin Megastores in five different states, and discovered seven had Long Road in stock, although none of them had the album prominently listed in their in-store inventory directories. Of the Virgins carrying the album, most started selling it today, one week after the album’s release, while two said they started selling the CDs on October 30th, the same day as the “exclusive” Wal-Mart on-sale date, with one store even “selling out” their fairly large stock. The fact that the albums were selling out came as a surprise, considering the CD at Virgin came with price tags ranging from $18.99 to $24.99. While it is a double CD, the price is strikingly higher than Wal-Mart’s tag of $11.88. When we asked one clerk why the album was so expensive at Virgin, and whether the discs might be imports, he whispered into the phone that he “thinks they were hard to get.” A small record store in Nebraska told us they were re-selling discs that were purchased at Wal-Mart. The question now is, how did Virgin Megastore get their hands on the album, and did these sales contribute to the Eagles’ Billboard chart-topping 711,000 copies? Mayfield says, “SoundScan was [also] aware that this was happening. They audited the data to weed out double sales.” A comment from Virgin Megastore wasn’t available by press time."
"“This seems like a big ego play to me,” said Don Van Cleave, a merchant in Birmingham, Ala., who oversees the Coalition of Independent Music Stores representing more than two dozen independent merchants. “Somebody went through some arm-twisting or negotiations, at least, to have themselves reflected on the industry chart.”
Many record executives privately criticized the unexpected shift, and some expressed fears that the shift might provide new incentive for artists to sell straight to retail chains like Wal-Mart, Starbucks and others.
Geoff Mayfield, the senior Billboard analyst who oversees the charts, played down any suggestions of strong-arming.
“We were not pressured. I did not get one phone call from Irving Azoff about this,” Mr. Mayfield said, referring to the Eagles’ talent manager, “and I did not get one phone call from Wal-Mart.”
Rather, Mr. Mayfield said, he made the change amid worries that the Billboard’s brand-name charts, regarded as the industry’s gold standard, were in danger of appearing out of sync with the music market.
About the time Billboard announced its policy shift, Wal-Mart, working with the band, issued a statement declaring that the Eagles’ release had sold more than 700,000 copies, and Mr. Mayfield said he faced the prospect that consumers would be confronted with two different acts claiming the weekly No. 1 crown.
As for the last-minute move, he said that if the magazine had not acted now, “then you would always look back on this week with regret: Why didn’t we do it when it was truly relevant?”
This is so weird, Billboard is a boring trade magazine, not a fan site........... Even in the days before the internet when industry news was much harder to come by, i mostly read it to look for new cutout wholesalers.
"Rather, Mr. Mayfield said, he made the change amid worries that the Billboard’s brand-name charts, regarded as the industry’s gold standard, were in danger of appearing out of sync with the music market."
Like it or not, that is an accurate statement. I personally resent the Eagles decision to support Walmart, & ya all are certainly sick of hearing my negative opinions of B.S. & her fans, but my understanding is that sound scan's implementation a number of years back had at least 4 intentions (3 of which were somewhat commendable)
1. To accurately report sales (Payola heavily impacted reporting for years) 2. To include the big box stores like Wally Mart, target & K-Mart who were at that time totally left off the sales charts although they were even then selling the majority of cd's 3. In the old days, many top sellers ended up having a return rate that was close to the amount shipped, which is how sales used to be determined; by units shipped, NOT by units sold. 4. This is the one i don''t like - there was a strong belief that the industry also wanted to marginalize Ma & Pa stores.
Again, my point is that none of my opinions above matter on this subject: a sale is a sale. It's simply a statistic & isn't inherently good or bad.
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