A few weeks ago, we posted
this item, about Wal-Mart releasing an exclusive Garth Brooks CD set that sold a million copies in fifteen days, and wondered what that might mean to the record labels:
The question is, could Wal-Mart apply the concept of private label to music -- could they, in short, become a label themselves? And the answer is -- you bet they could! In fact, some estimates are that, in country music at least, Wal-Mart accounts for 50% of sales.
Well, we just came across another example of this. Barnes & Nobel
has signed an exclusive deal with a 13-year-old "opera prodigy" named Holly Stell. A press release says:
Barnes & Noble ... today announced an exclusive CD and in-store performance agreement with Holly Stell, the 13-year-old Northern California opera singing sensation. Stell, who was recently dubbed "Petite Pavarotti" by Entertainment Tonight, will launch a multi-city tour where she will perform at select Barnes & Noble stores beginning this March. Her 14-track debut album, Holly Stell, includes the hit song, "Go Where Love Goes," a duet with Andrea Bocelli for the soundtrack of the feature film, The Lazarus Child ... Holly Stell is available only at Barnes & Noble and Barnes & Noble.com.
Putting aside the PR hype, it's fairly certain that this deal won't be as big as the Garth Brooks thing -- after all, this is opera, not country. But I think we're seeing the start of something that could become significant. The record industry is looking for new business models, and we're going to see a lot of experimentation.
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