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

Right...

[PunkOfLinux]

Because, as we all know, customers who want CD's at a decent price are OBVIOUSLY pirates...

Re:Right...

[Otter Escaping North]

Because, as we all know, customers who want CD's at a decent price are OBVIOUSLY pirates...

You know - I'm living in Canada, never used p2p or anything like that to download music...don't consider myself a pirate at all. Happy to pay for the materials I want. Upon hearing HMV is slashing prices - I rejoice and head to the website.

The White Album is still forty-five freakin' dollars!

Piracy causes lower prices then, does it? I guess I just haven't been doing my part.

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.

Re:Right...

[pokerdad]

They are lowering there prices because everybody has caught on that they are really high.

If only this were true. Once upon a time HMV was a music store that screwed people. Then people stopped buying music there so they started selling DVDs. Just last month they added video games to the mix. I was in an HMV last month, perhaps 25% of the shelf space was for music.

This cut isn't because HMV has figured out what they were doing wrong, its because they make all their money off of DVDs and games and the few CDs that are left in the store are stealing valuable shelf space. Despite the fact they continue to market themselves as a music store, I think its just a matter of time before the music is gone.

Re:Right...

[Pig Hogger]

Just to point out that HMV is grossly overpriced compared to other places like Future Shop or A&B Sound.

The CRIA should give their heads a shake. Don't kid yourselves, the members of CRIA are probably similar to the members of the RIAA, and are equally an evil lobby group.

The CRIA is actually mostly formed by the RIAA members, and as so is totally unrepresentative of the canadian music "industry".

Cheaper music?

[Gr33nNight]

So in other words, if people keep pirating, then CDs will be cheaper. Sounds like a win-win to me.

Re:Cheaper music?

[UnHolier than ever]

As a consumer, I DEMAND that the price for replicas of 16th centuries galleon, complete with functioning cannons and a well-trained and bloodthirsty crew, be lowered! Otherwise I will, you know....pirate..... *duck and covers*

Crazy Canada

[j00r0m4nc3r]

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??

Re:Crazy Canada

[PlatyPaul]

Well, it just depends on how loudly you demand it. And if you have your Demanding Stick with you when you do.

Only fair

[Borealis]

Piracy is a direct result of unreasonably priced music so I don't think they're going to garner a lot of sympathy.

No Piracy

[whisper_jeff]

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.

Re:No Piracy

[kebes]

It's part of the reason behind the tarifs we pay on storage media (as much as $25 on an iPod, for example).

Actually the levy on blank media stands (though it was recently reduced), but the levy on iPods was challenged and overturned. Apple has a page explaining that the levy was overturned and how to request a refund if you paid it.

(Unfortunately, the $ millions overpaid by Canadians on the blank media levy will apparently not be refunded to consumers.)

CD Prices and Slothful Government

[Stanistani]

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.

Re:CD Prices and Slothful Government

[kebes]

because the cost of movie production involves orders of magnitude more people and money that of an album?

This is probably obvious to most of us, but it bears repeating:

The fact that a CD and a DVD cost the same amount, even though the production costs are orders-of-magnitude different, means that:
(1) A CD album sells far fewer copies than a DVD of a movie does. Thus, the price needs to be higher to recoup costs; or
(2) The price we pay is not really correlated to the production cost. In particular, the claims that the cost of a CD is required to pay all the people involved in the production of the work is greatly exaggerated.

We all know that a merchant feels no particular desire to sell something at a lower cost if people are buying it at a higher cost. In that sense, the cost of goods is never correlated to the production cost, but only based upon the price the market is willing to bear.

On the other hand, in any sector of the economy where there is competition the price of a good on the free market will be driven down closer to the production cost, because one company will always be willing to undercut another company, right up until the point where they can no longer pay for production (and staff, and reasonable return-on-investment, etc.). However, where there is no competition, the price can be inflated arbitrarily high above the production cost.

Again, it's pretty obvious, but I'll say it anyways: The high price of CDs and DVDs is because the market is dominated by a monopoly, devoid of competition.

direct result of music piracy.

[oliverthered]

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

Rising Dollar

[doconnor]

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... 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.

Prices were unreasonable

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re: "More like Canada"

[Dystopian Rebel]

This is one of the few times I wish the US could be more like Canada.

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.

Re:A slightly different take

[R2P2]

The Globe's article is also nice enough to point out that HMV's lower prices still aren't really "low":

Whether it will be enough to change listening habits is another matter. It still often costs about half the price to buy the music online. For instance, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours costs $19.99 now at HMV, down from $24.99, but only $7.92 on iTunes. David Bowie's Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust? Now $19.99 at HMV, but only $10.89 on iTunes.

Re:What unbridled optimism,

[whitehatlurker]

and its spelled right

But "it's" isn't.

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.