After scoring one of the biggest exclusive deals in music retailing in a long while-- or at least since Wal Mart snagged the exclusive for the new AC/DC opus "Black Ice" earlier this year-- Best Buy began selling the long awaited new recording by Guns n' Roses, "Chinese Democracy," on Sunday.

But stepping down the escalator at the chain's Chelsea story in New York City on Sunday, when a more than 17 year wait for original Guns n Roses material ended, it would have been easy to walk by the modest display box with the Chinese Democracy CDs and vinyl LP's. There were few other signs of CDs being available, and the store was not blasting it on the P.A. system as a record store would have back in the old days.

It was a far cry from the scenes in 1991, when fans waited in long lines outside record stores in cities around the world for the band's "Use Your Illusion" two-CD set.

But then again, 1991 was a long time before iTunes, Apple's online music store, made its debut. While Best Buy has the exclusive on "Chinese Democracy" in actual stores, the 14-song set is available on iTunes too, unlike the AC/DC record which can only be bought at Wal-Mart stores (and to accommodate Wal-Mart free New York City, at MTV's store in Times Square.)

And for all the quiet at the Chelsea store on Sunday afternoon, the new Guns n Roses is a clear early hit, with iTunes on Monday morning ranking it the #1 album in the U.S.

Either way, we'll know how well the CD did both online and at Best Buy next week, when Billboard reports its debut on the record charts.

(Photo/Reuters)

So I wrote this story the other day about how Guns N’ Roses and the Paul McCartney/Youth project The Fireman were running streaming versions of their latest albums on MySpace, the social network that Rupert Murdoch counts as part of his News Corp media empire. The heart of the matter? MySpace touted it as exclusive launches preceding the albums’ debuts in stores.

On Thursday, I got a call from someone at National Public Radio who had read my story. Everything seemed fine except that it looked like Sir Paul and his buddy from Killing Joke who comprise Fireman had promised the exclusive to NPR.

I was getting ready for a good old-fashioned media brawl, but it was not to be.

NPR spokeswoman Anna Christopher: “We think that two people [at the record company] probably offered the same thing to NPR and to MySpace. Both of us are continuing to carry the album. We’re not going to make anybody take anything down or do anything drastic like that.”

Relax, Rupert. Venus and Mars are all right tonight.

(Photo: Reuters)

Once again, record companies are questioning the wisdom of selling music on iTunes. This time, the griping shows up the Wall Street Journal.

Basically, the argument is that music companies are starting to believe that selling single songs through Apple’s iTunes is bad for the industry (an industry, by the way, that is badly depressed and counts heavily on iTunes for sales and promotion).

The case for steering clear of iTunes is made through the example of Kid Rock’s “Rock ‘n Roll Jesus” album, which wasn’t sold through Apple’s site. Yet the album still sold an impressive 1.7 million copies, the article points out…

“In so many ways it’s turned our business back into a singles business,” says Ken Levitan, Kid Rock’s manager. Mr. Levitan says the rise of iTunes is far from being a boon to the industry; instead, he calls it “part of the death knell of the music business.”

Complaints from the music industry about iTunes are nothing new. Are executives are just looking a gift horse in the mouth? Or perhaps they have a point. Either way, as paidContent points out, there aren’t really any viable options out there right now.

In any case, trying to develop alternatives to monopoly distribution is always admirable, and indeed, desirable in the long run, but the more pertinent question is: if not iTunes, then what? 

Meanwhile, there is still the larger problem of piracy. In Los Angeles yesterday, federal officials arrested a man on suspicion of violating copyright laws for placing songs on the Internet from an unreleased album by rock band Guns N’ Roses.

Keep an eye on: 

• Vimpelcom signed a distribution deal with Apple Inc. to sell iPhone 3G in Russia (Reuters)
• TiVo posted a profit in the second quarter, but warned of a wider-than-expected loss next quarter (Reuters) 
• Rolling Stone owner Jann Wenner picked William Schenck as the magazine’s latest publisher (NY Post)

(Reuters photo of Kid Rock)