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  2. I ordered my Maiden vinyl from amazon.uk as soon as they announced it as they were selling for £14.99 but they probably didn’t realise then it was triple vinyl. Think its now around £25-30 as you would expect. Plus of course you get the mp3 version from them.

    But Tesco’s selling that cover? A tad strange.

    I’d say its not a good thing for Tesco’s to do that but then am I being hypocritical buying it from amazon? Probably.

  3. My friend who owns a record shop has commented about this last night on Facebook, alas modesty prevents me posting his comment (also I cannot access Facebook at work). Suffice to say it is not complimentary about Ocset.

  4. Think it’s being sold in its 50 largest stores – presumably if it’s a success there’ll be more in the future.
    If the price is right it’ll sell to Maiden fans who would have bought it elsewhere, but would think the number of them wanting a vinyl rather than cd copy is still quite a small proportion.

  6. Is it really joining the “Vinyl Revolution” and give over floor space to racks of LPs?
    Probably not – this seems to be a Marketing tool to flog more Beer.
    Most Tesco stores (and the one near me purports to be one of the largest Extra stores) have basically got rid of all CDs, except the “Buy 3 for a Fiver” range.
    Can’t see it going back into the physical product market – the CD range on their website is pretty small, and pretty over-priced.

    Most of the people who want the album will either have pre-ordered it, or will pick it up at their favourite local record store. I’m not convinced that offering Trooper beer at half-price (and it is quite nice) will get many Maiden fans through the door

  7. The revival of Vinyl I have mixed feelings about, but one good thing it has done is revive the fortunes of record shops which, a few years ago, were being royally screwed over by the likes of Tesco who were virtually giving away CDs as a loss leader.

    What the new Vinyl fetishism has done at least is restore a niche that record shops are best served to cater do. It’s a small, complex market, and it means small businesses can operate on a reasonably level playing field without a price war with the Supermarkets. It means I can go out on a Saturday afternoon in a medium sized UK city and find more places to browse for LPs, CDs and singles than I would have had say 5 years ago and some shop owners have not lost their livelihood – this is clearly a good thing and a small victory over the Amazon “Give me what I want NOW as cheap as possible and I don’t care who suffers in the process” culture.

    For Iron Maiden, surely one of the richest bands on the planet, to spearhead an initiative to get Vinyl into supermarkets flies in the face of all that. They hardly need the money do they, and surely they have such a vast global fanbase I can’t believe they couldn’t make more money selling their latest waxing direct to fans via their own website?
    It’s a publicity stunt for sure, and I agree with Rigid I can’t see Tesco stocking up on reissues of Young Marble Giants LPs any time soon – nevertheless it’s a dreadfully cynical exercise on all counts.

    • Out of curiosity, I had a look at the band web site. They’re listing the new album as available on vinyl at Amazon and HMV so I assume the Tesco deal has been done by Universal/EMI/Sanctuary, possibly without any consultation with the band.

  8. The new Iron Maiden album is also available as a CD in a very natty looking book type packaging. you can see it on Amazon. That may indicate the way forward for shifting physical product: make it something that you’d want to hold in your hand or put on your shelves, rather than those clickety-clackety jewel boxes.

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