Beyond Blogging Award: Billboard on Chris Brown's epic flounce
Chris Brown's epic flounce from Twitter (see also: Trent Reznor) may have inspired countless blog headlines already, but it's Billboard's coverage that actually got me excited.
In the great tradition of "radio won't even play this" complaints, Brown said he was being blackballed, especially by Wal-Mart:
"im tired of this sh*t. major stores r blackballing my cd. not stockin the shelves and lying to costumers. what the f**k do i gotta do... ... yeah i said it and i aint retracting shit im not biting my tongue about shit else... the industry can kiss my ass," read messages posted.
Which was funny enough on its own, in a really fucked up way. But even better than funny is, I don't know, actual reportage. So I was pretty excited to read this Billboard story yesterday, in which they did a very basic piece of old-fashioned journalism work and, hey, checked out those allegations themselves.
A survey and store visits find that Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Trans World, Newbury Comics are all carrying the Brown record and sources say that his album received widespread distribution and promotion by his label, Jive Records, and his distributor, Sony Music Entertainment. Jive shipped over 400,000 units of "Graffiti," and also had it positioned in prime stores space at all key accounts, according to sources. In fact, sources suggest that Jive may have overshipped his record, as sales are slow.
So Billboard wins today's Beyond Blogging Award (and yes, they're a magazine but the daily news cycle for most magazines more resembles blogs than newspapers). If we actually get some regular examples of such ingenuity I'll be happy to make it a regular series of prizes.
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- music blog
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- Music, Music Videos, Journalism, Music News, 6 more
