Virgin is pissed

[Krasno The Great]

check it out:
http://www.virginmega.com/default.asp?aid=763

Personally, I couldn't give a rats ass.

Not CK

 

[Gina Marie]

Jealous wankers-Richard Branson should go try to fly his balloon again or something

 

[kobayashi]

Originally posted by Gina Marie:
Jealous wankers-Richard Branson should go try to fly his balloon again or something

whether it was U2 or Universal the deal with Best Buy benefits fans but greatly disadvantages other retailers. of course they are pissed: i'm sure as far as some 'music' dvd's go, this is likely to be one of the biggest of the season given the popularity of the band and tour at the moment.

------------------
Kobayashi's bizarre use of colour, superfast editing and extreme camera angles, coupled with a hilariously deadpan performance by Toshiro Takemitsu as the inspector who discovers a whole family of ghosts travelling without valid tickets, remains without peer.

 

[80sU2isBest]

Originally posted by Krasno The Great:
check it out:
http://www.virginmega.com/default.asp?aid=763
Personally, I couldn't give a rats ass.
Not CK

Me neither. It troubles me that he equates the situation with "freedoms". What a joke. Like someone else said, he's jealous, and is trying to attach the buzzword "freedom" to the issue to sway people to his side.

 

[sharky]

Blah, blah. Its my right and my freedom to not get ripped off by those f-in' wankers. Please! Best Buy is going to list that DVD at a price cheaper than Virgin was anyway so its not like they were going to be getting any business from it in the first place.

I once went to the Virgin Megastore in Times Square and paid $18 for a CD. I don't do that anymore for a reason. Why should I sell my first-born child for a CD? What? To put Richard Branson in a balloon? Spare me.

------------------
"Things will not be the same in this city for us." -Bono, Dublin, February 1980

 

[sulawesigirl4]

Talk about poor sports. lol. I wrote them an email telling them that 1. If they had been offered the same deal, you can bet they would have jumped on it. 2. they should quit whining and 3. that if they were truly "there for the fans" they would sell the DVD whenever it was available.

-sula

 

[Gina Marie]

Originally posted by sharky:
Blah, blah. Its my right and my freedom to not get ripped off by those f-in' wankers. Please! Best Buy is going to list that DVD at a price cheaper than Virgin was anyway

My friend who got the DVD for me at Best Buy this am said, I believe, it was only $17.00.

 

[camiloj]

thats funny....

 

[Gina Marie]

hmmm-interesting pic..just another rich whiner I guess..

 

[what a bomb!]

pissed virgins? where? point me in the right direction! lol

 

[U2Bama]

I just bought mine a few minutes ago at Best Buy for $17.99; a creat price for a 2-DVD set with extensive packaging (the tag said $24.99).

Someone from Tower Records has alos complained extensively about this. K-Mart and Wal-Mart always have "exclusives" with country artists like Garth Brooks and Alabama, and Sting has done a special CD with Target.

The only thing that disturbs me though is that Sunday I went into the store to ask when they would start selling it. "Tuesday," they told me. Last night (Monday), someone here in town told me bought it that afternoon. When I went to buy mine today, it was their last copy, and I would have been quite mad. But I am not as all worked out well.

They still have tons of 2CD Best of U2 Limited Edition sets for $14.99.

~U2Alabama

 

[tkramer]

This was my reply to Virgin:


I don't have a lot of time to spend on this so I'll be somewhat brief.

This DVD is exclusive to best buy for 14 days only. There are deals with artists made
all the time that keep "limited edition" or "special edition" items at a specific retailer for
the life of the product. This item doesn't even do that. Why not pick on them? I also find
it hard to believe that Virgin wouldn't do the same thing if given a chance. Saying that
virgin mega stores genuinely care about music and video is really hard to swallow. Every
kind of MEGA store makes this claim. I work with marketers who try this crap everyday. If Virgin
were a music store owned by my next door neighbor I might be sympathetic, but this is
not the case. It's one big superstore crying about another big superstore getting the toy.
You say "We believe that this practice clearly disadvantages our customers and we do
not wish to see it repeated." I must be a cynic because to me this only sounds like "We
believe that this practice clearly disadvantages us."

I personally do agree that this kind of practice is somewhat underhanded, but it comes across
as shallow when it's a superstore supposedly making the charge for freedom. I apologize
if this offends the writer of the story, but I'm sure that I'm not the only one who feels this way.


T. Kramer

Kansas City, MO

 

[tkramer]

I agree with all of your points, and I would hope that virgin doesn't engage in these practices themselves. However, the fact that they have the most outrageously expensive CD's and videos of just about anyone in the biz speaks volumes to me about how much they actually "care." That was my point; that I would rather hear this kind of speech for a fan of music, not a big corp.

 

[unforgettableFOXfire]

oooh no! not the poooooor multibillion dollar music industry taking another HARD hit like this! ooooh I feel so much sympathy for them just because they try and make us feel guilty that theyre customers may have went elsewhere and claim that other stores dont care about music awwwww *cryz*... What is this capitalistic world coming to when people cant gross millions of dollars of initial dvd sales... awww i feel so bad!!!.... BITE ME... grrr... people piss me off... just like oh well youre all a bunhc of hypocrits blah blah blah... well if they dont like it they shouldnt be in big business, which is very cutthroat and will continue to be for quite some while to come. Suck it up virgin. I dont give a rats ass either. GAO upon all multinationals.

 

[SkeeK]

I think the Best Buy deal is very fucked up. It's not Virgin that it hurts most though, it's independant music retailers who actually are dedicated to music and care about it and struggle to survive running honest businesses pitted against giant corporate megastores like BestBuy, Walmart, etc. It's totally understandable that Virgin would be pissed off, so while I don't necessarily support their actions, I agree with where they're coming from.

 

[notiti]

I decided that I would actually respond to friendly Virgin Inc. What follows is the transcript:
To whom it may concern,
I do actually have something to say to you regaurding your decision about U2. How dare you claim to represent the interests of the musical community? You as a heartless corporate empire have stolen away from local music stores who cannot function on the same economy of scale as you can. How dare you claim to be standing up for freedom when you yourselves do nothing but homogonize. You people are hypocritical in the extream, and I am shocked that you would try to call into question U2's dedication to freedom. You represent everything that is wrong with corporate America, I hope you are happy...

------------------
Please repeat the message, it's the music that we choose.
http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~kljense3/MrTvs.html

 

[melon]

Heh...there isn't a Virgin near me for hundreds of miles. I think the closest is in Chicago, but I know that they are all over Europe.

Secondly, I don't think Richard Branson owns Virgin anymore. I believe he sold them. But I don't really cry for Virgin at all. They do charge excessive prices, not to mention that they are a conglomerate (airlines, trains, etc.) and I'm sure they don't hurt one bit. Whiners...

The Best Buy deal is a bit underhanded, yes, but, at least, they sell it cheap with the new release, and that whole plethora of 2-CD "Best Of's" and for $14.00 on top of it is totally kick ass. Best Buy is great for stuff like software, CD's, videos, DVDs, and in-store electronics. They suck at computers and computer hardware.

Melon

------------------
"He had lived through an age when men and women with energy and ruthlessness but without much ability or persistence excelled. And even though most of them had gone under, their ignorance had confused Roy, making him wonder whether the things he had striven to learn, and thought of as 'culture,' were irrelevant. Everything was supposed to be the same: commercials, Beethoven's late quartets, pop records, shopfronts, Freud, multi-coloured hair. Greatness, comparison, value, depth: gone, gone, gone. Anything could give some pleasure; he saw that. But not everything provided the sustenance of a deeper understanding." - Hanif Kureishi, Love in a Blue Time

 

[sharky]

Originally posted by SkeeK:
I think the Best Buy deal is very fucked up. It's not Virgin that it hurts most though, it's independant music retailers who actually are dedicated to music and care about it and struggle to survive running honest businesses pitted against giant corporate megastores like BestBuy, Walmart, etc. It's totally understandable that Virgin would be pissed off, so while I don't necessarily support their actions, I agree with where they're coming from.

I understand your argument about the independent music stores and I totally agree with you. BUT I think the point here is that Virgin is being hypocritical. If they were given the opportunity to carry the DVD exclusively, they would have jumped at the chance. The fact of the matter is that they got their feelings hurt and now they're crying about it.

On a side note, I once went to Virgin to buy a CD but I won't do it anymore unless its for CD singles. I found much better local stores that stock great music.

------------------
"Things will not be the same in this city for us." -Bono, Dublin, February 1980

 

[bullet the blue sky]

This is record companies and retailers and has nothing to do with U2.

 

[TheU2]

Originally posted by bullet the blue sky:
This is record companies and retailers and has nothing to do with U2.

Best Buy helped finance The elevation tour.

Kennedy

 

[kobayashi]

Originally posted by tkramer:
This was my reply to Virgin:


I don't have a lot of time to spend on this so I'll be somewhat brief.

This DVD is exclusive to best buy for 14 days only. There are deals with artists made
all the time that keep "limited edition" or "special edition" items at a specific retailer for
the life of the product. This item doesn't even do that. Why not pick on them? I also find
it hard to believe that Virgin wouldn't do the same thing if given a chance. Saying that
virgin mega stores genuinely care about music and video is really hard to swallow. Every
kind of MEGA store makes this claim. I work with marketers who try this crap everyday. If Virgin
were a music store owned by my next door neighbor I might be sympathetic, but this is
not the case. It's one big superstore crying about another big superstore getting the toy.
You say "We believe that this practice clearly disadvantages our customers and we do
not wish to see it repeated." I must be a cynic because to me this only sounds like "We
believe that this practice clearly disadvantages us."

I personally do agree that this kind of practice is somewhat underhanded, but it comes across
as shallow when it's a superstore supposedly making the charge for freedom. I apologize
if this offends the writer of the story, but I'm sure that I'm not the only one who feels this way.


T. Kramer

Kansas City, MO

you make good points but i still don't find any great offense in virgin's appeal. i'm not sure of this is the case, but it may be that virgin music opposes all of these 'exclusive to 1 store deals'. perhaps they don't engage in them themselves, if they are writing this i hope they don't or they are extremely hypocritical. show me evidence of them engaging in such a deal and my position will reverse quickly.
as for why they didn't pick on many of the other such arrangements, perhaps it is because this DVD is going to make a lot of people a lot of money. by best buy getting it 2 weeks early, they will catch a significant part of that market.

------------------
Kobayashi's bizarre use of colour, superfast editing and extreme camera angles, coupled with a hilariously deadpan performance by Toshiro Takemitsu as the inspector who discovers a whole family of ghosts travelling without valid tickets, remains without peer.