Eric:

The real scandal isn't that they stock the SHIT up front and hide the GOLD --- but the fact is that the labels pay for shelf footage from the retailers who carry their music. It is filtered through a maze of INDEPENDENT CONSULTANTS --- so it doesn't look like the payola and extortion that it truly is.

This is called RACKJOBBING --- which is where these so-called INDEPENDENT (but actually work for the labels) people visit the stores to decide what release gets placed where on display. This is all done to catch the eye and induce IMPULSE PURCHASING by those who shop in that store.

Perhaps the most used and familiar technique that is used by these people is the arrangement in close proximity of some of the other releases by the artist on sale --- to encourage sales of off-sale and back-catalog items. With retail --- it is all about exploiting the impulsive behavior of the customer to maximize profits.

For the first time since I bought my DVD player --- I visited MEDIA PLAY on a Saturday night near closing time. I wanted to see what the people looked like as they shopped.

As of this holiday season --- the sales of DVD's are driving the a/v software market. DVD's are where CD's were in the 1988-1990 time frame. People are replacing their complete video collections with their newer DVD counterparts.

In fact, DVD's are so popular, that the highest rated prime time major network television drama (CSI) has six million fewer viewers than it did at the end of the previous season, which ended only six short months ago. In May of this year, 26 million people tuned in to watch CSI each week. As of last weeks' before Thanksgiving ratings, that same show was only pulling in 20 million viewers --- these figures represent a reduction in the viewing audience of twenty percent within six months!

But I digress . . .

What I saw was a bunch of people with lists in hand --- picking out DVD's --- dropping fifty bucks here, and a hundred there.

I also saw a DVD titled MICHAEL JACKSON NUMBER ONES that was only recently released --- 11/18/03 --- and was on sale for only $9.95! I brought a copy to the manager of that department to ask if that title was selling --- there were a considerable number of copies on the shelf where I had just seen it.

"Have you heard that this creature sexually abuses little children?" I asked, holding up the DVD to display the cover. The answer I received was startling; "We don't decide what goes on the shelves, the labels do that. If I find that a certain artist or a particular title by that artist doesn't sell in the neighborhood my store is located in, I have to take them anyway. Whatever is in the boxes they send us, goes on the shelves." the manager replied.

A version of RACKJOBBING can sometimes be seen in grocery stores, as you find someone in nice clothes and a necktie rearranging the pretzels and other snack foods.

With the consultants making sure you notice the filthy lucre du jour --- there is a bigger and bigger incentive to "manufacturing" stars right out of thin air!

Comments, anyone?

KDB = Buffalo, NY USA