Three different readers submitted this story, apparently from three different sources, all located in Toronto.

JacB offers an AP clip --
TORONTO (AP) — At least three of the country's largest music retailers pulled Rolling Stones CDs, DVDs, T-shirts and other merchandise off store shelves Tuesday to protest an exclusivity deal with Best Buy and Future Shop.

That means anyone looking to buy Bridges to Babylon or Exile on Main Street at HMV's 100 stores, Music World's 102 or Sunrise Records' 30 will be out of luck.

The move comes after the band's management made a deal to sell the upcoming release of the Four Flicks DVD exclusively through the big box retailer.

The four-disc DVD, due out Nov. 11, documents the Forty Licks tour, which passed through parts of Canada earlier this year. Special features include behind-the-scenes footage of the band's Toronto rehearsals. It will retail for $39.99 exclusively at the 16 Best Buy and 107 Future Shop stores across Canada until at least early next year.

"If our customers aren't good enough to have access to their new release in our stores then maybe (The Stones) aren't worthy of having any products in our stores," said Humphrey Kadaner, president of HMV Canada.

This is the first time the CD and DVD shop has made such a bold move with an artist, but Kadaner said it won't be the last.

Next in line is John Mellencamp, who made a similar exclusivity deal with Best Buy for the release of his upcoming DVD Trouble No More: The Making of a John Mellencamp Album, he added.

compmore found it at the Toronto Sun. Pretty much the same story with a different quote --

"We pulled them on Friday," Sunrise buyer Tim Baker told The Sun. "We're doing it for our customers and not ourselves. Our customers don't want to shop in a place with washing machines and fridges.

"We've been selling the Stones for decades and we've put a lot of money into their pockets, so you can understand our position. Frankly, I don't think the Rolling Stones are about the music anymore."

Roger Whiteman of the Retail Music Association of Canada said his group -- which ironically includes Best Buy and Future Shop among its membership -- would be meeting next Wednesday at the Westin-Prince York Mills. "That issue will definitely be on the agenda," he said. "There is a great deal of concern by retailers who have supported the Rolling Stones' catalogue for years.

"Our entire association of members could agree not to stock the Rolling Stones catalogue. Whether they make that decision remains to be seen."

Toronto-based Rolling Stones tour promoter Michael Cohl, who represented the Stones in the deal, was unavailable for comment.

"I frankly don't expect Michael Cohl to respond to us," Baker said. "This is really to serve notice to anyone else who wants to pull something like this."

Well, Michael Cohl DID respond to the Wall Street Journal, which is where Bufo found it, in a story by Ethan Smith.


The dispute illustrates the peril of such exclusive arrangements, which have become more common recently among music acts and retailers looking for an edge in a marketplace that is tough for all of them. The dust-up involving the Stones is especially vexing for EMI Group PLC, whose Virgin Records unit distributes the Stones' post-1971 catalogue but has nothing to do with the digital-videodisc set.

Shoppers at HMV Group PLC's 100 Canadian outlets found cards in the Stones' bins that said, in part, "Distribution of new material by this artist has excluded HMV and its loyal customers. Hence we have opted to exclude this artist from our stores until this artist makes all of its products available to our customers."

Some U.S. retailers were threatening to follow suit. Virgin Entertainment Group Inc.'s Virgin Megastores chain - which is unrelated to Virgin Records - sent a letter to a Rolling Stones lawyer warning that "as a direct result of this exclusive strategy we are now being forced to review our future support for the Rolling Stones." Two years ago the chain didn't stock a U2 concert DVD for a month after an exclusive-sales period at Best Buy.

Newbury Comics, a 24-store Boston-area chain, pulled about two-thirds of the 45 Stones titles it normally carries and boosted prices to $18.99 on most of those it kept in stock. "If they're going to treat us as a second class citizen, we're not going to support them wholeheartedly by stocking their entire catalogue." said Newbury President Mike Dreese. Trans World Entertainment Corp., which operates the FYE, Coconuts, and other music chains in the U.S., said it was considering a similar response.

Michael Cohl, the Stones' tour promoter and chief executive of TGA Entertainment, which is releasing Four Flicks," said in a statement the Best Buy deal made it possible to sell "a four-DVD set for $29.99 in the U.S. and $39.99 in Canada. The other offers we received from alternative distributors would have had the product being sold for at least $20-$30 higher to the customer, something which was unacceptable to the Stones and TGA."

20 to 30 dollars higher was unacceptable to the stones? I should hope so however if that's too outragous for them then perhaps their mark up to the distributor is just as outragous and that's why only best buy could afford it with their volume. The Stones sound like they're just going for the money. another legend bites the dust. such a shame, I love their tunes

And all this time I thought that music retailers were desperately trying to ATTRACT customers to get more business (that would include, I would think, keep a variety of music on the shelves and keeping prices at reasonable levels).

There is so much about the music industry that I just don't understand.

"The other offers we received from alternative distributors would have had the product being sold for at least $20-$30 higher to the customer, something which was unacceptable to the Stones and TGA."

And the moon is made of cheese. Go Newbury Comics!

Well I am glad to see this, I like the stones but the stones are money hungry at the best, ithink they are alittle worse than that. Come on stones do you really need 3 million for one show? oh and how bout the time I worked at the HYatt and you had the kithchen kept open 24 hours strictly for you, you guys have lived way to long on the fat of the land, now it is time you got a reality check.

I have never liked the Rolling Stones. I thought they had huge egos. Their Best Buy deal shows me I was right.

All the more reason exlusivity contracts with retailers should be considered an anti-competitive move, and a violation of the Sherman Anti-trust Act. But is our Justice Department paying ANY attention? Very doubtful, since these kind of arrangements keep popping up over and over again.

INeedALover: exclusive distribution deals are not subject to Anti-Competative regulations, so long as the consumer isn't adversely affected, as so long as the rest of the channel is not adversely affected as well.

People fail to forget, although U2 had an exclusive deal with Best Buy and thus forced Virgin Megastores not to carry the item for a month post following, the channel had availability to them after a certain time period had elapsed. This is kind of the same way WalMart was able to leverage the Harry Potter series en mass and have MORE copies available at a huge discount than any other chain on this planet.

Publishers, be it music or print, look to see who has the best penetration, the highest consumer recognition brand name and they go with that, as a first measure, then the rest as time goes by.

I can see why smaller outfits and private record stores would be ticked off from not being able to cash in on the hype. With what they are doing, by BOYCOTTING (wow, interesting way of thinking?) the major release, it sends a message to the publisher that in the future, any additional material from the music group could be put in peril, with hundreds of thousands of copies not being picked up for distribution once the initial phase is completed. It's a risky gamble on the publisher's part and they are betting the farm that once the exclusive deal is passed, everyone will jump on board and take the rest of the production run. What smaller retailers and private owners could do is just simply not carry that album at all, forcing the music company to liquidate the entire run at a loss or even have them dispose of the production inventory that doesn't sell. Either way, the artist gets screwed with bad publicity and a bad taste in the mouths of those outlets that were passed over.

Does anyone know how that U2 album faired after that debacle a few years ago?

Yeah, BestBuy is in Bed with the RIAA, that shouldn't be a suprise... anayways, The small shops are Boycotting them, well that's great to hear, and it's interesting. Allot of bands have been all about money and not music for a while now, since that's what the RIAA payes them to do.

Even if the other music retailers are mad, it doesn't make sense to me that they would pull all the other Stones albums from their shelves. By doing that, they are foregoing possible sales of older music by the Stones.

This is called 'cutting off your nose to spite your face'.

Exclusive distribution deals are not that uncommon in the world of retail.

Excellent post Foopah. The U2 thing was the Live In Boston DVD, which they had exclusive for a few weeks. I don't know how it sold.

On a related noted, a few years ago the labels were giving exclusive tracks to certain chains. Sometimes they would give 1 track to BB, another to Target, another to CC, etc. This pissed off the collectors who complained to the labels. As a result of the complaints, this practice was largely cut back. The labels still offer bonus tracks for certain retailers, but less often and they almost never give different bonuses to different chains on the same release.

The snow balls gonna roll even faster and grow even bigger just can't wait and see where it ends up.

I just watched the news and this was mantioned on it, so it is making a impact of some sort already.

that's good. at least one boycott is getting mentioned on the news

Best buy is so incredibly stupid.....the morons go and buy all the Sam goodies that are charging 18-20 a cd...then almost always there is a best buy down the street selling the same cds for 10-15...gee....no wonder they are closing the sam goodies...and they blame it on file sharing. This latest move just shows how stupid they both are. Could the rolling stones be any more greedy? After all the money they have made they still like to shove it in your ass, charge you for it and laugh.

mroop: thanks to ya! I didn't realise people actually read my ramblings

I've been in the retail publishing sector before, and got to understand the nuances of the trade when it comes to music and books. The book trade is fiercly competitive and authors are not subject to the "work for hire" requirements that musicians are. If musicians were to have this unalienable right, I beleive that musicians would have a better say as to how their albums would progress and ultimately published to get to the masses.

For example, with authors, if Stephen King were to decide that his Publisher (whomever it may be) only gave exclusive distribution rights to Barnes and Nobles for a 2 week get-ahead on a new horror novel he is releasing, he can do that, though the other chains would want a quantum break on pricing in order for them to make any money after the exclusive distribution time is passed. Authors generally have the ability to manipulate the market to their whims and desires, unlike musicians. That is why some specialized authors, who write in niche markets, can make exclusive arrangements with any of the big book retail houses without hurting their fan-base. Sometimes it's good business to go with a Corporate name in the book publishing business than not. Unfortunately, this is not the case for music and musicians.

Another good example is Harry Potter. When the last book (as in my previous example) was being released, WalMart received the largest discount, the largest allotment of books and, for the consumer, the lowest price for the book anywhere on the planet. All the author had to do was say Yay or Nay to the deal (and she isn't stupid, she she wouldn't say Nay) and WalMart allotment and distrubution would've been quashed from the get go. Again, music and musicians don't have a say so when it comes to pop culture music being released as the "next big thing."

Ok, now I am rambling, I'm going to go eat dinner, more later

Dave10910: ugh, I couldn't help post a response to your post - Sam Goodies is owned and operated by a conglomerate that owns Musicland and a couple of other "Mall" named stores. I believe Coconuts was one of them, if I am not mistaken. If I am, my apologies, I haven't been reading my Crain's weekly.

Dinner calls...

But at least the Stones have control of their music, err product, that is!

Aren't the artists supposed to have control of their music/product? Even if it is poorly calculated control?

Yes, the artists SHOULD have control, and apparently the Stones do. And after reading all of this, Mick and Keith would probably be laughing their asses off.

What they have done through this "scandal" is to raise exposure for their new release -- and trying to make you feel like, "Hey, it could have been way more expensive." But object number one of publicity is to get people to talk about you and your latest album, just so everyone knows it's out there.

By limiting to one chain and getting a bunch of brouhaha over it, they are creating an artificial consumer demand while keeping a short supply. This is the way the industry prefers life to be.

actually, Sam Goody stores sales were plummeting steadily long before Best Buy bought the company. The Sam Goody chain's sales figures had nothing to do with file sharing, and everything to do with poor customer service techniques. When Best Buy acquired the company, they attempted to repair the company image by re-invigorating customer loyalty, but by that time, Sam Goody had already branded itself in the public mind as a bunch of uncaring jerks.

I don't agree any more than the rest of you with the exclusive contract mode of business, but Best Buy isn't the anti-Christ. Actually, Best Buy is attempting to meet the digital music demands of the populace now with a program called Rhapsody. Now, yes, only popular artists are currently available, and you probably won't see much indy music, but Best Buy is attempting to come into the digital, on-demand, media market and offer a legal alternative to all of RIAA's bass ackwards pissing and moaning.

Yes, large corporations limit choice in small towns, drive small businesses under, limit diversity, limit prices, and sling monoculture by the ton. Yes, I too would rather shop at some little hole in the wall merchant and find what I want without worrying about "exclusive deals" and "price fixing".

But you know, I never really loved the Stones enough to make a big deal out of it.

Have you looked at Rhapsody? If memory serves, its basically a digital radio that you pay for, your computer holds 99% of the song, and to play the song you stream the 1%.

Best Buy has been doing this kind of thing more and more frequently, of late.

Where I live, Target and Walmart have been meeting or beating Best Buy's sales on new release DVDs for quite a while. So, to counter this and get folks back into BB to purchase their DVDs, they've started offering more and more exclusives.

All of the following DVD releases have included an exclusive bonus DVD, CD or collectible over the past few months:

Disney's Sleeping Beauty - Bonus Soundtrack CD
Indiana Jones Boxed Set - Bonus DVD
Xena Season 1 and 2 - Bonus DVD plus collectible coin
Die Another Day - Bonus DVD

In the case of Die Another Day, MediaPlay offered a completely different exclusive bonus DVD. However, MediaPlay is owned by...that's right...Best Buy. These are just a few examples.

They're not the only ones doing it, though. The Disney Store usually offers some free exclusives if you pre-order new releases directly from them.

I must say, though, that all of these "exclusive bonuses" are not as aggressive as withholding an entire release from other retailers.

But object number one of publicity is to get people to talk about you and your latest album, just so everyone knows it's out there.

You are so right George as always, especially in rock in roll, there is no such thing as bad publicity as long as there is publicity, you caught that one right on the nose.

Interesting news, to be certain. I was a Best Buy insider for 3 years and was around when the "Beast" bought out and raped and pillaged Suncoast and Musicland. There was nowhere the amount of fear in the management back in the late 90s... and now, in order to "gain the upper hand" against the other big box media retailers are striking "exclusive" release deals right and left.

I have a HUGE problem with this. It will force consumers to drive long distances to specific retailers to get the latest release of their favorite artist or director. This style of sale will become the norm over the next few years. I wouldn't be surprised if EVERY artist/director signs an exclusivity contract with different chains. It would put money in the artists pockets, or else they wouldn't sign the contracts. It would, in theory, make the chains money by granting them exlusive rights to sell a particular artists work. But... much like how the "Big Music" industry works now... it'll stifle competition to an EXTREME degree by wrapping up artists in contracts with "no-compete" clauses.

Bottom line is that soon we'll see artists/directors not only sign contracts with labels/production companies that will thoroughly rape them of their respective profits, but we'll also see them sign contracts with retailers. Whereas now we are seeing the RIAA stumble and fall, the entire pre-recorded media retail industry will soon follow. It'll be interesting to see how the retail world looks ten years from now.

Does anyone know for sure how this works?Did Bestbuy order whatever number at a set price.If they sell big we get a profit;if not we get publicity;same for the Stones'.If this was an outright sale to Bestbuy then Stones' were going on" money in the bank"theory because things aren't going well.

Don't believe anything or put anyting past Best Buy. I worked for them for 3 years and they don't care about the employee's much less the customers when it comes to how they sell any media. They just want the money and you need to go to www.bestbuysux.com

Sorry that links down or gone. They had plenty of stories of how bad best buy was.