SONY BMG Statement on 18 #1 Singles

"Dear Elvis fans,

We have been inundated with calls this week from Elvis fans who have not been able to buy this weeks single.

Demand, it seems has outstripped supply. As we have said in previous statements, we made a marketing decision to limit the quantities of each release to make them collectible and hopefully increase demand to ensure we would get Elvis back to the top of the charts, where the fans want to see him. This decision was based on previous sales history.

However, it seems that as the media interest in Elvis has built around this campaign, more and more people want to buy the Elvis singles. As a result of this we are manufacturing an additional 5,000 copies of each single. These 5,000 are in addition to the already increased run from last week meaning that in total we are producing over 50% more singles than we originally planned.

We hope that with this much increased quantity that fans who bought the original box will now be able to complete their sets without having to pay inflated prices for the product.

Additional quantities of 'Jailhouse Rock', 'One Night' and 'A Fool Such As I' on CD will be manufactured however instore dates will vary so please check with your local retailer for further information.

Additional quantities of 'One Night' and A Fool Such As I' 10" will be instore from January 27th. All other releases will see their additional quantities instore on the day of release.

Thank you for your patience and your continued support, we wholeheartedly apologise again for any issues incurred trying to purchase singles but please rest assured we are doing all we can to resolve them."

SONY BMG

(News, Source: SonyBMG)

EIN Comment: Sony BMG has done the right thing in pressing more copies of each single. However, we do not accept the company's rhetoric about each single being released as a limited edition to "...hopefully increase demand to ensure we would get Elvis back to the top of the charts".

Jailhouse Rock and One Night have hit #1 as the lowest selling singles on record, with sales below 22,000 copies each.

As the original Sony BMG strategy was to only release 20,000 copies of each single, and #1 singles in England were selling more than 20,000 copies, the rhetoric is exposed.