Here Today... Gone To Hell!

Someone must know the answers to these questions: when do cds arrive in the stores? is it the friday prior to release? when is the earliest a music store can order new cds? a week ahead? a month? two weeks? it seems whenever that happens someone somewhere would say something about chinese democracy.
i have a hard time believing that some gnr fan isn't already positioned within some music store to know when something is being ordered ... or not. maybe i don't know a thing about music stores. i do know as each day  passes the chances of a big build up (a month, month and a half) dwindles so to me that means it'll be a quick promotion... a week or two or less. or no album this year. that's simple math. if any record could get away with this and still have a large first week its chinese democracy. that's not gnr fan chest thumping... its just that every rock fan 18 or over that i've ever met at least already knows about this record and there's a lot of interest to carry it that first week, first two weeks.

From my experience in retail the earliest I've ever seen a new release show up is about a week early. The only time that's ever happened was if it was a Greatest Hits or Live type album. Something that doesn't really have any new material on it.

Most of the regular released always show up on the Friday before release. Some albums that the record company is really afraid of piracy with, show up on Monday afternoons. The last time I can think of that happening was Eminem's last album "Encore". No retailer I know of got that until late Monday evening.

Most of the leaks end up coming from someone in the record company anyways. For example, that Eminem album had been up on the newsgroups since the Tuesday before it's release even though the record companies delayed the shipping as long as they possibly could.

I would think they Fed-Ex them on Friday, for Monday delivery. I worked at a video store when I was out of college & we ALWAYS got the movies in the day before (I think they come out Tuesday's also, myb Wed).

But yeah, obviously people are going to find out ahead of time. Manager of stores have to order how many CD's they think they will need and so on. So it won't just BAM! come out on a Tuesday unannounced. That's why they most likely will have to announce a release date a few weeks in advance.

I actually got Live Era the Friday afternoon before it came out.  I went to an independent store and asked the guy if he had heard anything about what was then still named '2000 Intentions' and he said no, but he had another album if I was interested.  So he asked for $20 I gave it to him and I was the talk of the town when I was rocking the double disc on Friday night.  I was pretty excited at the time.

So I am thinking if you really wanted to get a new album you could get it Friday, but not from a big chain store.  I am assuming they get the albums Thursday or Friday.

This is gotta be what GN'R are going to go with for CD. I would think some of these rock nerds are drooling at the possibility of leaking CD two or three days before it's release, and even though most leaks come from within, it could still be a problem.

Most likely it will be very secretive, and delivered probably during late Monday afternoon into the evening.

But we will see...

Most of the time stores don't get the CD's until the night before and they have a special seal on them, so people can see if anyone has opened them or stole them.

When UYI was released, my record store (In Newfoundland, I worked there part time) got 2 cases of 1 and 2 cases of 2 several days (Friday) in advance. I had my copies before anyone that I knew. I was the most popular 16 year old kid in school. Everyone was gathered around my car at lunch time listening to the albums days before release.

That sounds awesome!

Uhmmmmm, wrong!! They are sent Fed Ex/UPS. Do you know how f'ing expensive it would be to have them specially couriered to all the Best Buy's & Circuit City's & music stores in the world??! 


It'll be sent the same way as every other CD on the planet.

Ummm, unless the packages are broken into. The courier doesn't know what the fuck they are delivering, except they are delivering cds.

They don't know specifically that they are delivering 'Guns N Roses CHINESE DEMOCRACY', because it says on the box. The store gets mass shipments are various cds. When they open the box, the GNR stuff will be there.

Like I said, most likely it will be a late delivery that evening, so no one touches it until that Tuesday morning.

Big Chain Stores (WalMart, Best Buy, Circuit City) do their own distribution.  They tend to have the albums at warehouse relatively early and the stores typically have them by Friday or Monday before release.  SOMETIMES, for big releases, the distributor will drop ship directly to the retail outlets, but that's infrequent.

Smaller chain stores also get their shipments, direct from the distributor usually, on the Friday or Monday prior to release (and a lot of that depends on your proximity to the distribution center).

Mom and pops get them on Monday, prior to release, usually.

And they have to get made, packaged, etc at some facility.  They don't just appear magically in the mail  :beer:

CD stores usually get them in on Friday.

There's this cd store by my house who sells the cds the day he gets them, so I've gotten every new release that I wanted to buy on release day on a Friday.

There have been a couple times where they didn't have the new cds in stock yet, but I've been going there for 8 years and I've gotten hundreds of cds the Friday before they were suppose to come out (so 4 days early).

I'm hoping that there's no problem getting Chinese Democracy early. :)

so to clear things up a little, i work at a best buy and a local record store part time. both stores have the same distribution for new releases, best buy has a warehouse that distributes catalogue titles, whenever you see a cd with a long sticker on the front with a bar code, this is from the warehouse. otherwise cd's for the most part come in on wed, and at the latest friday, and the idea that a special courier would come with cd's is very farfetched. we got the killers on wed, evanescence on wed, and just about everything else.
peace

sometimes the stores get them very early. if it is a large amount they ship on pallets through trucking companies. at my job we shipped the little mermaid to stores about 2 weeks before it came out. the is a big orange sticker on the shipments that say do not put on shelfs til' 11/21/2006 or whatever that release is for the cd or dvd. i see new cd's all the time. ( & no, i havent seen anything for chinese democracy yet).

What matters isn't when they arrive, but when they get ordered. I've heard from 4-6 weeks, wich if true, limits the amount of tuesdays even more.

I work at a record store, and we tend to order are cd's about two weeks before they come out, we get them the thursday before they come out. And I've heard a couple of people,up at head office, stating a certain date.

That's a big tease, my friend.... or total BS....

I know some friends who work at Best Buy, and sometimes they don't get their shipments until the day of the actual release.

I've seen new album releases, not come in until 3-4pm the afternoon that Tuesday, and that still doesn't give them time to get it out to shelves.

Not BS my friend...i've been here to long to start shit like this. I've heard two dates, one in November the other in December, i'm hoping for the November but that doesn't seem likely anymore. I won't say the exact date, i don't wanna jinx it at all.

The store can buy them, basically whenever. I used to work in an Electronics store and we'd get POs for stuff sometimes a good two months in advance. Unfortunately, I quit that job, but never saw a PO for Chinese Democracy. Basically, any supervisor at a record store or electronics store will know when it's coming when a PO comes down for it. I guess it depends how the store works, but at the one I worked for, it could anywhere from a good two months to a couple days before hand.

I may be able to help on this one. I used to work In an Entertainment store. If We was gearing up for a big Release (I.E. oasis, U2, R.E.M. Coldplay, Guns N Roses) The stock would generally go into the store on a wednesday before the release date(Monday Here in the UK) There would be about 100 or so copies. then the next day another 25 would arrive and this would continue untill the day of release. They would then be restocked on sale  Basis (1 sold = 1ordered) However we could  order some more if were thought they was going to sell (or was selling above expectations)
 We generally got told about big releases about a month before the release date.
 All the Point Of Sale (Posters, Standees etc) use to come in on The Friday Before Release.
 Hope this helps