John Otway vs Woolies and W H Smiths

[TheHitMaker]

John Otway has made it into the top 10.. Woolworths and WH Smiths refuse to stock his single, saying they do not think it is what their customers would want to buy. They, coincidently, only seem to stock singles that are on major record labels. Is this a return to the dirty days of hyping - are Woolworths and Smiths controlled by the major recording corporations? This sounds like chart rigging to me (Woolies sell around 20% of the single sales in the UK), Should we live with this blatent obstruction to sales, or should we boycott these stores until they represent the views of their customers?

[cupra]

I don't think they are controlled by the Labels, but as there are only a few controlling labels left (Sony, EMI, etc. - you'd be suprised who owns which minor label) there may be distribution agreements..... but I'm sure they don't breach EU anti-competition laws ;-)

I'm very concerned about the state of new music because of the situation with labels/distribution etc - I heard recently that labels alledgedly pay some radio stations in the US to play new artists!!!! How on earth can grass roots musicians compete with that??

Check out this link for an interesting read:
http://www.sospubs.co.uk/sos/jan02/articles/dointh
ebiz0102.asp

[Rainbow]

what I don't understand is why Woolworths continue to refuse to stock this single despite it being in the top ten. As they are a chart return shop this seems to be a little contradictory. I grew up in a small market town where Woolworth & WH Smith were the only shops to buy your singles from- where would I have gone to get this one?

[jenstar]

When the Todd Terry remix of "Missing" by Everything But The Girl come out a few years back, it wasn't stocked by Woolworths but entered the chart at about number 8, I think. Then Woolworths still didn't stock it for ages, until it had been in the top ten for four or five weeks, and then Woolies finally sheepishly put it in as a new entry to their chart at number 48!

[TheHitMaker]

Thanks for all your comments - and an interesting article cupra. I know that there are a lot of people who are fed up with the music industry being controlled by the big and powerful in this country - but at least a backlash seems to be happening. Good to see Otway making the point so clearly on a lot of tv and radio shows after TOTP on Friday.