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Universal Music To Cut CD Prices
phlack writes "CNN Money has an article about Universal Music Group's plans to slash their CD prices to $12.98 SRP, in an effort to combat piracy and bring consumers back into stores. It makes me hope the other giants will follow suit, and wonder if the music industry is finally listening to some of the consumer's complaints."
Explain why Cassette is still going to be cheaper. No, really. I want to hear it.
Could it possibly be that CDs are way, way overpriced, even at $13?
Belief is the currency of delusion.
What's so good about concerts? I like to own music, so that I can play it whenever it is convenient. I hear this talk all the time about how artists should make money through concerts, but I've never been to a concert in my life and don't understand why I should care to. Micropayments are probably a better idea.
I'm actually rather shocked that CD prices are that high in the US. In Canada CD prices range from ~$14.99 - $21.99 ($21.99 being those rare expensive collectors or double CD's). I thought that those prices were high.
I'd be *pissed* if I had to pay $26.20 ($18.98 USD) for a crummy CD.
Dropping the price to $12.98 is still ~$17.90 CAD, which is just brutal.
Now the question is, will they drop the prices in Canada as well? or have they just decided that they can afford to bring the prices down in the US to reflect the same prices in Canada and still gouge us at the register?
E.
Never rub another man's rhubarb - The Joker
I generally can't stand Courtney Love but she had a pretty good speech and quote about this whole thing: "How can pirates steal money from artists when the record companies have already stolen it all?"
Everybody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful
It is ironic that the top echelon of recording artists could not exist without an industry to support them. Strip away the managers and agents, stylists and coaches, from someone like Justin Timberlake and ask is it possible that he could still make a living from music? Probably not. Ani di Franco, on the other hand, has been making a comfortable income for years without the support of the business she's supposed to be in.
As Douglas Adams pointed out, many companies aren't in the business you think they're in. Fox News is, despite a million conspiracy theories to the contrary, simply in the business of delivering an audience to its advertisers. The ethics and actions of the "Big 5" corporations who control 90% of record sales make rather more sense if they are viewed, not as separate companies, but as one distributed bank.
As anyone with any experience of dealing with banks will know, they are monolithically slow to react to changes in the environment, and are populated with highly intelligent, but narrow-minded, solipsists. They're doing now what every one of us was warning them that they should be doing the instant MP3 was rolled out.
By way of related tangent, here is an article by Steve Albini about his experiences with one of the majors, and his advice to anyone thinking of getting involved. At the bottom of the page is a detailed breakdown of a typical deal in which the "industry" made $973,000 and each of the four band members made $4,031.25.
When the entire system is that fucked, the price of a CD is moot.