Posted July 24, 200618 yr Woolies' Cheap CD chart boosts sales Source: Music Week Woolworths expects to boost its album sales by up to 3m units this year, on the back of the success of its Cheap CD Chart. The chart, which was introduced to stores in March as a way of improving promotional sales, features a rundown of 50 CDs priced between £2.97 and £7.97. Titles are chosen for their relevance to the current musical climate, including catalogue albums from touring artists and themed seasonal releases. The chart is racked alongside the main albums chart in all of the company's 821 UK stores. Head of trading entertainment and mobile communications Jim Batchelor says the new chart has given a vital boost to sales of featured releases. "Sales have been excellent," he says. "If you take the full year, we are talking 2m to 3m units. We have created a vehicle that has helped to drive catalogue. "We have also engaged record companies," he adds. "They see it as a new way of promoting their catalogue. It gives their albums better profile, being in the top five of the Cheap Chart rather than in the Top 75 of the main chart, and it allows us to group things together. We don't have the HMV library effect; what works for us is when you present something very easily, simplifying it for the customer." While there has been concern from retailers over the aggressive price cutting of albums in recent months, with chart-topping releases from acts including Keane and Hard-Fi selling for significantly less than £10 in many outlets, Batchelor says the new chart is not a way of further reducing prices. "We have not put the price of CDs down further," he says. "We have taken deals that were out there and presented them in a way that people haven't done before." Product manager for music Keith Black adds, "It is the same price point but, by clever presentation, we can make it easier to shop."
July 24, 200618 yr Last week I was in Woollies and they had Shayne's No Promises for 99p - a bargain they said. Now it is still 99p but down on the other shelves with no "bargain" notice.
July 24, 200618 yr they have some good compilations in the cheap chart, like no.1 house anthems, no.1 europhic dance, no.1 ibiza chillout ,no.1 trance classics for like £5.97 each they all have 4 discs!
July 24, 200618 yr I have bought LOADS of CDs from the Cheap Chart so it's certainly worked on me :D Everytime an artist brings out a new album I buy one of their older albums too if I don't have it nowadays :lol:
July 25, 200618 yr they have some good compilations in the cheap chart, like no.1 house anthems, no.1 europhic dance, no.1 ibiza chillout ,no.1 trance classics for like £5.97 each they all have 4 discs! are the tracks all kosher though? or it is like 3 big tunes and all the rest knocked up in the same studio by the same bloke?
July 26, 200618 yr are the tracks all kosher though? or it is like 3 big tunes and all the rest knocked up in the same studio by the same bloke? Its mainly back catalogue stuff at reasonable prices! See for yourself here > http://www.woolworths.co.uk/ww_p2/browse/i...?cat=cat1002370
July 27, 200618 yr I might try and get Blink-182's Greatest Hits for £5.97 when I'm in town again then. :D
July 27, 200618 yr onlt problwm with this is the bottom of the album chart is gonna get sploged up with all the old albums and all the small acts are not gonna chart
July 27, 200618 yr onlt problwm with this is the bottom of the album chart is gonna get sploged up with all the old albums and all the small acts are not gonna chart Well aren't a lot of them being sold too cheaply to qualify for the official album chart?
July 28, 200618 yr Well aren't a lot of them being sold too cheaply to qualify for the official album chart? it's not the price Woolies sell the albums for that matters, but rather the price they bought them for. So they could sell an album for 1p and it can chart, so long as they paid over the minimum dealer price when they bought them. The dealer prices (for CD's) are: (Budget) 0.50 - 4.24 (Mid price) 4.25 - 5.99 (Full price) 6.00 or over midprice and full price albums are eligible for the main chart, budget albums have their own chart.
July 28, 200618 yr thanks 4 the info didnt know that, can anyone get the budget chart? Do you mean, is the Budget chart available? If so, yeah, it's in ChartsPlus every week (a top 50) , as well as the top 15 on Music Week's website. Here is the current top 15: 1 1 4 FLEETWOOD MAC GREATEST HITS Warner Bros K 9258012 (TEN) 2 2 3 ROD STEWART THE BEST OF ROD STEWART Warner Bros K 9260342 (TEN) 3 NE NE VARIOUS A TASTE OF KANDI - SUMMER 2006 Hed Kandi HEDKSMP2006 (U) 4 4 4 A-HA HEADLINES & DEADLINES Warner Bros 7599267732 (TEN) 5 3 21 T.REX HITS Crimson CRIMCD40 (EUK) 6 5 89 THE JAM THE BEAT SURRENDER Spectrum 5500062 (U) 7 7 6 VARIOUS ARTISTS THE BARBECUE PARTY ALBUM Crimson CRIMPCD015 () 8 6 10 GENE PITNEY THE VERY BEST OF Crimson CRIMCD30 () 9 11 2 THE BEACH BOYS THE COLLECTION EMI Gold 3407702 (E) 10 12 3 THE PRETENDERS THE SINGLES WEA K 2422292 (TEN) 11 8 200 DUSTY SPRINGFIELD HITS COLLECTION Spectrum 5375492 (U) 12 13 8 KENNY ROGERS CLASSIC LOVE SONGS Crimson CRIMCD209 (EUK) 13 9 32 RAT PACK LIVE & COOL Crimson CRIMCDD384 (EUK) 14 10 22 AL GREEN THE VERY BEST OF Crimson CRIMCD38 (EUK) 15 14 2 THE CLASH GIVE 'EM ENOUGH ROPE Columbia 4953462 (ARV) There seems to be a number of albums that have previoulsy charted in the proper album chart. Presumably, the dealer price for these is now low enough to qualify them for the budget albums chart. Usually this chart consists of cheap albums which you find in the likes of Asda (and Woolies!) and usually buy for one or two songs at the most! Other times the chart has the odd single which isn't eligible for the singles chart in it (usually one where the running time exceeds 20 minutes, or where there are 4 tracks etc). Budget Albums have to sell twice the amount of mid-price and full-price albums to qualify for a certification (ie Platinum = 600,000 Gold = 200,000 Silver = 120,000). This rule doesn't apply to albums that were previoulsy released at a higher price (ie some of the above, which at one time qualified for the main chart). Edited July 28, 200618 yr by Robbie
July 28, 200618 yr it's not the price Woolies sell the albums for that matters, but rather the price they bought them for. So they could sell an album for 1p and it can chart, so long as they paid over the minimum dealer price when they bought them. The dealer prices (for CD's) are: (Budget) 0.50 - 4.24 (Mid price) 4.25 - 5.99 (Full price) 6.00 or over midprice and full price albums are eligible for the main chart, budget albums have their own chart. thanks for that, really informative
July 29, 200618 yr Must admit I've bought a couple from Woolies budget chart,the first Will Young album and a RHCP greatest hits.
July 29, 200618 yr It's a good job I don't have a Woolies in my city anymore, my CD pile would be overflowing too much with purchases. :P
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