HMV Canada Cuts Music CD Prices

umStefa notes a CBC story reporting that the largest music retailer in Canada, HMV, has slashed prices on CDs and is attributing the move to demand by customers for lower prices. The back catalog of popular artists will see price cuts of up to 33%; the cuts average 20% across the board. The Canadian version of the RIAA is spinning the news as being a direct result of music piracy.

Comments

direct result of music piracy.

[oliverthered]

Let's here it for music piracy, the only thing that's putting some competition into the market.

Somewhere in Bentonville... Always lower prices

[Animats]

Somewhere in Bentonville, Arkansas, a Wal-Mart executive is deciding how to respond to this pricing move. When the decision is made, calls will go out to record companies, telling them what Wal-Mart is willing to pay. That's what really scares the RIAA.

Lower prices reflect true costs

[TrentTheThief]

The action to reduce the price of CDs actually brings the cost more in-line with what the true cost should be. For many years RIAA included marketing of a group was factored into the cost of the CD/Tape/Album.

Well, I call shenanigans on that. When is the last time you saw any marketing for any of the older groups? The only time they do anything is to pump up sales of re-masters or collections.

If they lowered the price to USD$8-10 a CD, I'd consider buying some of my old favorite groups. But for now, I have my XM and a steady supply of music that's free of bullshit-interruptions and asshat DJs. Spend USD$18 for a CD? No way, not even for a group I truly enjoy. That's pure and utter BS.

Re:Movie vs CD

[Kandenshi]

A lot of people complain and say they listen to indy artist, and while I can appreciate a good song. How do you find these artist? Everyone know's Gwen Stephanie, and whoever is on the top billboards, and they are there more or less because of the amount of money that was dumped into marketing. I've been finding most of my indie music from the commentary and content of Jeph Jacques's "Questionable Content", a 959 page(and growing!) webcomic. Jeph's a music dork, and a number of the characters in the webcomic are music nerds too. While we don't always agree on what makes a good album he and his characters have introduced me to quite a few new bands I'd never heard of before. He makes some of his own music too, which I think is worth a listen.

Pitchfork Media might be of use as well, a music review website that covers alot of indie CDs. I trust it somewhat less than I do Jeph, but it can at least expose you to music(good or bad). Their reviews can be ... a little bit pretentious at times, but one learns to just deal with that over time. Other random websites sometimes, or talking to some of my friends(trading music back and forth) are other sources for joy.

It's a grassroots sort of marketing style for sure. One has to actually go out and LOOK for the material in order to learn about it. But the resources are out there, if you are willing to put a very mild amount of time into it. Gwen Stephanie? I wouldn't cross the street to get her entire discography for free. Not even if it was in FLAC or high quality ogg vorbis files!(gasp)
Personally, I've been happier reading QC and hearing about Broken Social Scene or The Postal Service or Battles or The Fiery Furnaces or or or... Well, you get the idea. I'd never heard of these bands until I started reading QC, and now the "Indie" folder on my computer has works from many dozens of artists.

If you want some music suggestions send me a msg, I'll fire off the names of some favoured bands that you can check out. >=}

More Insightful Article on Why HMV's Doing This

[theshowmecanuck]

This article from the Globe and Mail provides some more interesting insight into why they are doing this.

However it raises more questions. Like if younger people are buying more old Pink Floyd albums (errr... CDs), why is HMV charging $10 dollars more than newer CDs? After 30 years on the market you would think that 'Dark Side of the Moon' or the 'Led Zepplin' CDs had made their money and maybe could be reduced to the price of say, a CD produced in 2007?

And for those who don't know, HMV is the Canadian equivalent of, for example, the chain of Virgin record stores. In fact, HMV recently took over the Virgin location on the corner of Burrard and Robson in downtown Vancouver.

Re:Right...

[AGMW]

Now, call me old fashioned, but isn't The White Album quite an old album? Didn't they make a killing on it from the original vinyl, then again on tape, 8-track, MD, DAT, and now CD. Surely this is just milking the populace?

This is the problem the recording industry has got: The 'n'th pressing of some old album onto a new media ought to be cheaper than the original, as they haven't had to re-do anything, other than maybe shrink the album cover to fit a CD. What is the cover of The White Album anyway [googles] Hmmmm. OK. Can anyone guess?

So they accuse us of pirateering, and we accuse them of profiteering! It's a racket and they know it is. The whole screaming and shouting about pirate downloads et al is just a smoke screen in the hope we don't realise they've been shafting us for years!

As has often been said, they need to wake up and smell the coffee! Cheaper CDs in the shops - say £5 a CD - would likely mean people buying 3 CDs. Pile 'em high and sell 'em cheap!

Or wander over to sellaband where you can help unsigned artists get into a top studio by pre-buying their next CD for $10 (10 US Dollars), and you get a (small) cut of sales, Ad revenue, and downloads. Might not amount to much, but if they're as good as you think they are, who knows!

Pop into my Sellaband Shop for some free downloads right now, or buy tracks for 50 US cents for DRM free quality mp3s.