AC/DC Score Hit With Wal-Mart

Similarly, an upcoming Target commercial will act as Aguilera's new video. And Martin Kierszenbaum, an Interscope A&R exec who oversaw the Police box set, says, "Best Buy was like, 'We're going to put it in the front of the store — it's November, the height of traffic — put it in the circulars, take out ads, TV, radio.' I was like, 'This makes me feel like a frontline release.' " The Eagles benefited from their deal with Wal-Mart last year, selling 2.6 million copies of Long Road Out of Eden by the end of 2007 — making it the year's third-biggest record.

While the Eagles signed directly with Wal-Mart, AC/DC's deal is through Columbia Records. "People [at labels] see it as a new model," says Greg Hall, Wal-Mart's vice president of content and services. "We're finding there's more and more willingness to come down to Bentonville and see what we have in mind."

For years, labels resisted these kinds of deals, fearing spurned retailers such as Tower would respond by pulling product from shelves. "There were [retail] accounts that were absolutely a little upset with exclusivity, and sometimes artists paid the price back then," says Johnny Barbis, co-manager of Elton John, who also put out 2005's Dream Ticket DVD at Best Buy. "Not so with today's marketplace. There are no Towers anymore. Where are you going to go to pick that [business] up?" Still, the antagonism over exclusives continues. "It's a disturbing trend," says Don Van Cleave, president of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores. "It forces music fans to go to the one place, and they may not even have it in their hometown." (Indie stores can sell the vinyl version of Black Ice.)

But with AC/DC poised to follow in the Eagles' bestselling footsteps, these deals are likely to become even more common. "If you go to a major city, people got tons of choice," AC/DC's Angus Young says. "But if you go to out-of-the-way places like Montana, Wal-Mart is the only game in town. If I grew up in this country, it would have been out in Montana, or somewhere small. You can't be a snob. That was the selling point to me."