Saint John wrote:As a fan of the band I love the music and the CD is everything I could have expected, but as a consumer I have more than a few gripes. First, the package is embarrassing. It's nothing short of terrible and screams loudly that
every measure was taken to make the package is as cheap as possible. Physical CDs are a dying art and giving the consumer something to
remember is a key part of continued business. After this particular packaging I can't see anyone getting excited
ever again about getting a physical copy of a Journey CD.
Walmart, Anderson and Journey's management all seem to be on different pages. When you have an
exclusive deal with Walmart (or not) and they (Anderson) can't even stock it properly under "New Releases," something is very wrong! Moreover, in some instances, it wasn't stocked at all! This debut was a colossal fuck up. The CDs launch was on a HOLIDAY WEEKEND ... the kickoff to the summer. Walmart has foot traffic up the ass. People are buying beer, food and charcoal, in bunches. People have a bit of euphoria running through them, as they anticipate the kickoff to summer and a holiday weekend. This was, in hindsight, the PERFECT weekend to launch your CD. And they fucked it up from A to Z.
After the Revelation debut issues with stocking and availability, one would think that Journey's management would have dotted
every I and crossed every T. And perhaps they did, but it sure looks like they didn't. They didn't promote, they didn't advertise, they didn't make sure Anderson and Walmart were crystal clear with the launch, and the numbers showed it. Now, we come to find out that Neal is telling everyone that it will be on iTunes in "a few months" and it's available NOW?!?! That probably cost them a few thousand sales losses in illegal downloads. No one's going to wait a few MONTHS for it to come to iTunes when they can scour the web and download it for free! And they're certainly not going to pay NOW when it's on every torrent site known to man or they simply burned someone else's copy already.
Man, I think if you sat back pre-release and said "Let's try and completely fuck up this release in every way possible" could you come up with as many problems, missed opportunities, incorrect information and overall mixed signals as they did. I sure hope someone's head rolls because this was a disaster. 3 years and a quality product in the making and it absolutely goes south due to nothing more than incompetence. The good news is that the release is still out, but the bad news is that it's gonna be a deep, deep hole to climb out of. Who the fuck manages these guys ... Barnum and Bailey, Cheech and Chong, Starsky and Hutch, or Beavis and Butthead?
This is a damned good post; well thought out. Nicely done Daniel.
I have a few questions and thoughts brought out by your post.
1) Was Journey allowed to also sell Eclipse on their own website, or when they say it is an all exclusive Walmart deal, what exactly does that mean?
And you know what else? It charted so poorly, and still nobody even knows about it's very existence, how about re-promoting it? Just pretend that last week never happened. It's not too late to spend a hundred thousand to promote this and try to save the release and well, save face too. If they are truly proud of this cd, and I agree it is well done, and it looks like they took the effort to bring about a solid product. It's not too late for Nomota to cut a check to WM or whomever, and get the cardboard cutouts in ALL the Wally World's, posters, whatever. Spend a few dimes, make a lot of quarters. Man, there is a giant void in rock n roll right now (sorry Deb, we don't count Mr Big)...there is NOBODY in RocknRoll putting anything out right now. One exception is that shit Def Lippard crap they are putting out, Mirrorball. I can tell you that is a POS without even listenig to it. What Journey the band did was IMHO, a very nice effort for it's fans. Journey Mgt(i.e. incompetent asshole Jews), basically plunger raped the band and its' effort. I would be pissed as all Hell if I were Schon or any of the band members. Seriously, they actually sit and
try- something they didn't do for Generations or Red-13...they
tried and came up with a pretty good release this time. I am convinced this cd tanked not because of the music or direction they took...not at all. This tanked because of management and management
only. There should be a fist fight in the offices of Irving Azoff with Neal Schon v the Old Man himself.
Tito PM'ed me and rightfully pointed out that the band simply cannot depart the clutched arms and claws of Azoff Inc. They own rights to arenas and tickets etc....I told all of you people 2 years ago when Bruce Springsteen and Jon Landau(Bruce's Mgr), fought Azoff tooth and nail, and were against the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, that it was a big deal. No one said a word and everyone simply shrugged their shoulders. I wish Bruce would have done more, and fought harder, because the result is killing Journey and probably a lot of other bands too, that we haven't heard about. We can blame Bruce for this I guess...although not his responsibility, he was the only guy in music who could have stopped this bullshit from happening. Of course he has excellent Mgt, and isn't affected, but well, like I said, He and only he could have had a chance to stop this horrible merger/monopoly. Too late now though, eh?
So what you think? Is it ridiculous to even think it's too late to "re-promote" this release? Monker, correct as usual(sorry Dan, he knows his stuff), was on top of this 2 months ago, when promotion should have commenced. He was also correct to say that the only people who know about Eclipse are readers of this fine site. I am serious, I know Schon reads here. Neal has to be absorbing some of these thoughts, and he may just talk to the smarter Cain about this, and take some of these ideas, thoughts, complaints, bitches, and everything else to Mgt for a little conference. Something has to give. Either re-promote it, or just begin the process of lopping off Azoff from the organization known as Journey. Or God forbid, throw your arms up and after this tour, just quit. If I were still an avid, passionate fan, I would be so pissed right now. You think Azoff does this, or lack thereof for Christina, the Eagles, or any of his other bands in the stable save for REO? No way. This was a direct lack of respect for an institutional American Pop/rock music icon, Journey. Think back to Azoff's words in the BTM on VH1. He said there was a "huge void out there...people missed the music, and Journey was coming back in a big way to fill that void."(Or something to that effect). I would love to hear his thoughts now.
I am sincerely sorry to you hardcores of Journey, and actually to the Band itself. They deserved better than this.
PS- I would LOVE to know Herbie Herbert's POV on this clusterfuck.
PPS- What's really ironic is Azoff does NOTHING to aid in the sale of a pretty damned good product, yet sits back and rakes in the dough on a tour, built around a structure that Irv himself put in place with the Ticketmaster/Live Nation garbage. He is making millions upon millions, and didn't spend a fucking dime to help his band. Man this stinks to high heaven.
