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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.
Because, as we all know, customers who want CD's at a decent price are OBVIOUSLY pirates...
Show this to your friends and family that don't know what a real hacker is
So in other words, if people keep pirating, then CDs will be cheaper. Sounds like a win-win to me.
is attributing the move to demand by customers for lower prices
Holy shit. In Canada, all consumers have to do is demand lower prices and they get them??
Piracy is a direct result of unreasonably priced music so I don't think they're going to garner a lot of sympathy.
Unbreakable toys can be used to break other toys.
The Canadian version of the RIAA is spinning the news as being a direct result of music piracy.
They can spin it however they want, but it's legal for Canadians to download music. It's part of the reason behind the tarifs we pay on storage media (as much as $25 on an iPod, for example). I'm paying for my right to download music, thank you. Now be sure to give my money to the artists and not line your own damn pockets.
So when will CD prices dip below DVD prices?
Also, from TFA:
"A succession of Canadian governments have sat on their hands and done nothing," he said.
Excellent. That's the best kind of government. The type that doesn't make laws just to please some industry group.
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
Let's here it for music piracy, the only thing that's putting some competition into the market.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
At least things work as they should somewhere. It finally dawned on them that "Hey, people don't always steal music, and when it's cheaper, they buy more."
It's quite sad that this has to be such a stunning revelation, actually.
It is probably not the result of piracy but the result of the rising Canadian dollar (or the falling US dollar), meaning that the Canadian dollar is nearly at par with the US dollar, so people expect the prices to be nearly the same.
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.
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.
This also just helps bring Canadian prices in line with American prices for the same products. We have always been getting ripped off and over the last year as the Canadain dollar has risen the prices have become more and more unreasonable.
Yeah, I would never want to change the poverty and disastrous education system, the lack of health insurance for most people, the broken two-party political system, the prison system with highest rate of incarceration in the world, military profiteering and the $34 TRILLION debt load...
But it sure would be great if CDs cost less in the USA.
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
No, its not the dollar (though that will help a bit of course), but the cost of CDs has stayed somewhat high, while the cost of movies has dropped, DVDs are getting cheaper all the time, and video games seem to have hit a ceiling. That, in addition to HMV loosing its leadership position in music sales to Walmart, Future Shop and BestBuy, makes HMVs traditionally high prices seem rediculous. Why would I pay $13 for a CD at HMV, when I can get it at Best Buy for $10, and I can buy the concert DVD elsewhere for $18? HMV has had some good sales with their 2-for- or 3-for- sales, but the majority of CDs in their stores are sitting in the racks at regular sale prices much higher than anywhere else.
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
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. >=}
But "it's" isn't.
.. paranoid crackpot leftover from the days of Amiga.
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.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
Just a reminder to our American readers, it is legal to share and download music in Canada and it is not piracy. This is a result of a the Canadian version of the RIAA's successful past pressuring of the government resulting in the imposition of a blank media tax. The proceeds are supposed go to the artists to compensate for loss revenues from sharing of music. As I understand it, the courts have deemed that sharing music via the internet is no different than copying a CD and giving it to a friend. Therefore since the record companies already accepted the tax as fair compensation for music sharing - they cannot ask for more. Someone more informed than I can provide the links and clarify the details but we download music here without worry.
But I don't.
I used to be a real record CD hound spending hours combing through the stacks. I used to go to big name concerts regularly. I no longer buy CDs (last I bought was over 10 years ago - some medieval music and some worldbeat) and when we go out it's to listen to small local pub bands, small chamber ensembles or choirs or dance to electronic music DJs. And I'm more likely to play music or sing karaoke than listen to it. A large part of this is just disillusionment with the entire big business music model. Spending a couple of hundred bucks to see Madonna or go to the Opera or listen to a warhorse symphony *again*, doesn't seem to make much sense when there are so many more enjoyable alternative musical experiences.