In a 11 in a In 11 in a - World Radio History

Propelled By RSO Records Successes In '78,

Movie Soundtrack Albums See Banner Year

- LOS ANGELES With as many as 11 million sales level in the U.S., RSO claims

Wash" soundtrack was listed in the Top

soundtrack LPs appearing on the Cash Box the two top grossing albums of all time.

200.

Top 200 Album chart in a single week, 1978

On Oct. 31, 1978, Cash Box reported

Appearing on the Oct. 14, 1978 chart

proved to be a banner year for albums there were 11 soundtracks on the album were: "Grease" at #1; "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely

featuring music from films. As the year ends, seven soundtracks

have a footing on the album chart and three

- chart, three of those albums, all in the Top

10, were RSO releases "Grease" at #1, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" at

Hearts Club Band" at #8; "Saturday Night Fever" at #17; "Children Of Sanchez" at #31 bullet; "FM" at #96; "The Wiz" at #108

of those LPs, "Lord Of The Rings," "Satur- #8 and "Saturday Night Fever" at #7.

bullet; "Thank God It's Friday" at #109;

day Night Fever" and "Up In Smoke" are

Moreover, seven of the 11 soundtracks "Animal House" at #152 bullet; "Battlestar

bulleting.

found on the chart were two -record sets Galactica" at #161 bullet; "Foul Play" at

Setting the pace for '78's soundtrack ranging in price from $12.98 to $15.98. One, #167 and "Eyes Of Laura Mars" at #168.

successes was RSO Records which fanned Casablanca's "Thank God It's Friday," was

Soundtracks currently appearing on the

the fires of the phenomenon early in the a three-record set, which lists for $14.98.

album chart are: "Grease" at #5; "Saturday

year when the soundtrack from "Saturday

In contrast, only six soundtrack albums Night Fever" at #40; "Lord Of The Rings" at

Night Fever," which was released in were found on the Cash Box chart in Oct. #70 bullet; "The Wiz" at #104; "Sgt. Pep-

November 1977, climbed to the top of the 1977 and four of those records were single per's" at#114; "Up In Smoke" at#121 bullet album chart on Jan. 21, just eight weeks af- LPs. And in Oct. 1976 only MCA's "Car and "Midnight Express" at #172.

ter its release.

The "Fever" album's success was

- spurred by the fact that the LP contained a

number of hit singles, three of which

- "Jive Talkin'," "How Deep Is Your Love" and

"Stayin' Alive" were recorded by RSO's

Bee Gees. Other hits culled from the LP included Tavares' "More Than A Woman," Yvonne Elliman's "If I Can't Have You" and KC and the Sunshine Band's "Boogie Shoes."

RSO paced its initial successes with the release of two other soundtracks, "Grease" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," which also featured music by the Bee Gees. "Sgt. Pepper" became the first album to ship triple platinum, with initial orders exceeding three -and-a-half million copies.

And with "Grease" recently topping the 10 million unit mark domestically and "Sa urday Night Fever" nearing the 15

Video Leads Merchandising

Trends In -Store For 1978

by Leo Sacks

The cross -merchandising of the record and video industries in record retail outlets, the emerging importance of inventory display specialists as liaisons between their company's branch offices and dealers, and the growing use of point -of -purchase materials were major in-store marketing developments in 1978.

Video cassettes featuring group performances were actively used this year to advertise LPs within record outlets. "The audio-visual concept is what turns the consumer on today," stated Sam Passamano, (then) vice president of distribution for MCA Records, (Cash Box, January 14).

Some outlets, like the Peaches chain, looked for new ways to screen large numbers of tapes and came up with the "video concert" approach. Other retailers began

splicing footage from different tapes

together.

Meanwhile, more record dealers also began to sell video equipment. The

Warehouse, for example, cross -

merchandised audio and video hardware with records and tapes, as well as video

software. Cleveland's Record Rendezvous saw a video cassette turnover of four times a year, and video software sales approached five percent of the chain's dollar

volume, according to Joe Cohen, executive

(continued on page 112)

Retail, Wholesale Sales Skyrocket

by Aaron Fuchs

At the retail and wholesale levels, 1978 was a year of rising prices measured by both the disappearance of the $6.98 list LP and the appearance of the $8.98 list LP.

Another concept that proved as

provocative as price raising was that of the multi -tier wholesale price structure. Widely adopted by manufacturers, this type of pricing engendered resentment and confusion among some retailers, while benefiting

others. Retail prices began their ascent early in

the year. The first big jump came when CBS

announced that, effective Jan. 30, the list price of most of its front-line and catalog LPs would rise to $7.98. Shortly afterwards, both RCA and WEA followed suit, and the rest of the industry was not far behind.

In January, WEA unveiled its multi-tier wholesale plan (Cash Box, Feb. 4). While wholesale prices had traditionally been

divided basically into dealer and

wholesaler prices, the WEA plan offered a strict definition of wholesaler as an operation that did not include any "affiliated retailer." Operations that included affiliated retailers would pay a retailers' price for that percentage of their business, with the retailers' price computed on a sliding scale, depending on the volume of affiliated business that was done. Other aspects of 'the plan included chargebacks and rebates for customers whose projections were inaccurate by the year's end.

Some dealers reacted adversely to WEA's plan (Cash Box, March 18). Operators of multi -unit retail stores charged that, despite the large volume of

(continued on page 112)

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