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Record Label Thrives Selling CDRs

Posted by michael on from the rip-mix-burn-profit dept.

n3hat writes "'The major music companies may fret over falling revenue, but one label saw its business jump 33 percent last year -- thanks in part to the recordable compact discs that the industry says are hurting its sales. The label, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, is using recordable CD's, or CD-R's, to ensure that each release in its extensive catalog is always available'."

13 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. Frickin' ridiculous... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I just want someone to go point out all these inconsistencies with the RIAA's case... It's amazing what powerful lobbying groups can get away with in the United States.

    1. Re:Frickin' ridiculous... by aborchers · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'm not sure this example can be generalized to higher volume businesses. You really can't compare, say, WB to Folkways.

      A more relevant problem is that RIAA labels hold up the copyrights on old material, keeping it inaccessible to small labels who could do a bustling business in one-off discs like this. Honestly, if the business opportunity isn't great enough for them, why don't they let go and let people get the music they want?

      Oh, wait... Those Conch shell recordings compete for the same consumer dollars as the latest from Korn. Riiiigght...

      --
      Trouble making decisions? Just flip for it.
  2. Yeah by gazbo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And how exactly is this a measure of how it would affect EMI/Sony etc who don't have a problem with running out of cds? For whom writing a CDR is considered more expensive than pressing 1000 too many?

    1. Re:Yeah by chrisseaton · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They are refering to old, out of press albums. Setting up to press a CD is very expensive. Pulling the tracks out of a digital archive wanted by a customer and burning one CD is cheap (they're selling for $19.95 remember) compared to setting up a press.

  3. Good example by dreamchaser · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is a good example of just in time manufacturing. However, as was pointed out, it's fairly meaningless for the giants who never run out. Then again, if they could ONLY burn what they are going to sell, then Sony wouldn't be left with 10 million extra copies of Michael Jackson's latest CD after selling only 2 million. That alone would boost margins by eliminating waste.

  4. Cost effective for Folkway by very · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It is more cost effective to burn those music on CD-R's than pressing them on regular CD's.

    Usually you have to press lots of CD's so the cost would be minimal.
    I am guessing that the demand for the music that Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is selling pretty low.

    Thus CD-R would be economically feasible and more cost effective.

  5. Old titles not available... by cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, this is one thing that cheeses me off against the record industry. There are TONS of songs I'd love to get digital versions of...everything from old tunes from the 50's to one hit wonders from the 70's-80's...but, cannot find due to being out of print. Heck, I've got stuff on vinyl that I need to someday try to convert to digital...because they will NEVER be released by the music industry on a CD. Why don't they open up their catalogs....especially stuff they just have locked up with no intention of re-issuing?

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  6. RIAA/MPAA miss the boat, as always by ThresholdRPG · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are two important conclusions to be made from this article:

    1) As always, the very technologies that RIAA/MPAA complain about are often the source of their next, great revenue stream (like VHS).

    and

    2) What is so wrong about people being able to purchase otherwise out of print recordings? The argument is always that it is too expensive for them to fire up the huge CD presses (that are designed to crank CDs out by the thousands) to simply sell a handful of CDs. Why not take 1 master and burn it to 1 CDR and then charge an extra dollar or so?

    It is amazing how the RIAA in particular seems to have this "sacred cow" of wanting to horde older music and make it unavailable even to PAYING customers.

    --

    -Michael
    Threshold RPG
  7. Here's how by oni · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And how exactly is this a measure of how it would affect EMI/Sony etc who don't have a problem with running out of cds? For whom writing a CDR is considered more expensive than pressing 1000 too many?

    I would like to purchase the Clash album _Return to Brixton_ and will gladly pay the copyright holder a reasonable fee for it. Unfortunately, it's out of print. The record company is unwilling to sell me this CD *at any price*

    Yet if I download it they claim I've stolen something.

    If they had half a brain, they'd burn it on a CD-R for me and sell it for around $9.

    1. Re:Here's how by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Same thing with me... only it was a Disney video.

      My daughter was at the right age, but Disney had not re-released "The Little Mermaid" on VHS. I wanted to buy a copy (packaging, coupons, not to mention "doing the right thing"), but couldn't. So I got a copy made from a friends laserdisc (remember those?).

      By the time they did put it back on the market, my kids were too old for me to consider buying it.

      --
      Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
    2. Re:Here's how by edgezone · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Disney is a completely different ball of wax. They have been stuck in the model of artificial scarcity for god knows how long. Basically, since they control the exact distribution of each of their movies, all they have to do is take it out of print for a while, sit back until the next generation needs copies, release them, grab all the profits that their pockets can hold, and shut down shop on that video for several years.

      Of course in the modern age, this may come back to bite them. Back with VHS, it wasn't quite as bad, because you can't really dilute the market with copies of copies of copies. Now, once something is released on DVD, it's only a matter of time before a DivX version finds its way out there...ESPECIALLY for harder to find releases. As broadband kicks up and video compression algorithms get more streamlined/refined, it's only a matter of time before the entire DivX Disney library can be had with just a quick click of [insert your favorite p2p client here]. And of course each of these copies can have the same or near the same quality as the original.

      That's the sad part. Most of the people I know who like Disney cartoons would happily buy a collection for themselves or for their kids, IF they were all available. But if you can't get your hands on Robin Hood, or Peter Pan, well, it doesn't leave much choice except to either pirate it or wait until your kid is a freshman in college, and Disney decides it's time to line its pockets again.

      --
      -- If you can't laugh at yourself, someone else will do it for you.
  8. Thanks to presumption of guilt... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...as long as your burn is to Music CD-R instead of normal data CD-R, you should be safe legally. By paying more for Music CD-R, you're buying a license from the RIAA to burn as much music as can be burned onto a disc, which (they say) will be distributed back to the artists.

    Of course, the label in this story owns the copyrights to the music in their catalogue, so they can burn to CD-R themselves without repercussions; it is their right to copy that they're exercising, be it to pressed disks, burned disks, cassette tapes, or even etched onto drums designed to be played on old wire recorders.

  9. CDRs won't help... by IronicCheese · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This works for the Smithsonian because they're selling music with some staying power.

    The archival value of a random track of Brittany Spears's is zero.
    In general, her discography's value goes to zero as her age approaches 50. See also Tiffany.

    Generalizations of this Law Of Bulging Middles to other pop stars is left as an exercise to the /. reader.
    (hint: analysis of Madonna or Michael Jackson requires taking into account of relativistic effects.)