[Vertigo-1]

http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

This is both good news and bad news...the good, you pay about what we SHOULD be paying for a CD, and not almost $20 for a CD. On the other hand...are we seeing the end of the CD era, with the pushing of legal online music?

 

[MacDEF]

Vert, I saw that last week, too. Wouldn't it be great if the promise the record companies made two decades ago ("CDs are cheaper to manufacture than cassettes, so they'll eventually be cheaper") was finally close to being true?

 

[beowulf]

I'll just say that I'll believe it when I see it (particularly as extra money in my account)

 

[dhwilkin]

I would love to see this happen, but you can also add me to the list of skeptics.

 

[gloco]

Quoted from the story:

"If a CD sells for $13, a record company takes in about $8, of which it deducts artist, publishing royalties and manufacturing, promotional and marketing costs"

Not necessarily true, i worked in a music department for a chain (the wiz) for a while, and the receipts always stated the actual price the company paid for the cd's (new cd's). It usually hovered around $10-11 and change. The cds they seem to mention going for $3-4 are probably those dirt cheap (C product) cut outs (like bad quality classical recordings). The Wiz used to charge only $13.98 for new releases, but marketed blank tapes and other accessories like crazy cuz thats where they make their money ($5 on a $6 audio tape pack).

As for cds going for $9.99 right now? Those are "super savers" and other types of groups (like 8 track greatest hits of the jackson 5). These are B product cd's, cds that still sell but are marked down (this of course excludes artists like The Beatles).
Hopefully they'll start pricing "last year's" new releases are a lower rate. But i really think a big shakeup is going to come out of this, a lot of artists are going to get dropped. Just my opinions.

George

 

[cajunchrist]

I think that the subtext of what we are talking about here is that the "anarchy rules" of the internet must die soon. One of the key weaknesses of capitalism is that it does not encourage developing quality product, it encourages developing profitable product, a vital distinction.

Since the advent of on-line file swapping, the music business has proven itself unable to keep up with the times by providing products and services that the public demands at a price it is willing to pay. The public is having to settle for a poor quality product (mp3 format music downloaded for free) because record companies are demanding too much money for their product (CD's) and are stretching and breaking the laws meant to prevent copyright infringement to penalize consumers even further.

It seems obvious that the government will have to do two things in order to get the flow of information on the internet to the level that was envisioned at the beginning of the 90's: first, copyright laws will have to be enforced so that consumers who own a recording can copy it on to any format they choose for their own use. Second, a standardized system of high-capacity transmission lines to the home (i.e. fiber) will have to be built, since the copper running in to most people's homes has reached its bandwidth limit.

If we have a vision of the internet as the "information super-highway", it is not hard to adapt the concepts used in building the interstate highway system in the 60's to developing a nationwide system of fiber lines that can get digital television and other services in to the home, all at screaming high bandwidth for maximum quality and quantity.

cajunchrist