"The CD as it is right now is dead", EMI Music CEO

[pds6]

vcoheda says:
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[T]hey spend another few hundred dollars downloading music from itunes (.99 per song adds up very, very quickly). ... Makes NO sense!!!

A download rather than a coffee. A song instead of a candy bar.

You and I may not agree, but it makes all the sense in the world!

 

[YamiTenshi]

Ah... but you see that's the beauty of $.99 downloads: you don't see your money disappear as fast. When you buy a pair of headphones or a CD you are spending a lot of money at once and that you will see. Even if you spend .99 ten times a day you still only see .99 each time.

 

[K2Grey]

I feel that as long as it is possible for people to get the CD for free instead of paying money for it, they will download the CD. End of story. If encoding becomes more important, better encoded things will appear (or they will download torrents which usually have good encoding methods). If artists are "better", then they will download more music because the artists are better.

 

[cerbie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pds6 A download rather than a coffee. A song instead of a candy bar. You and I may not agree, but it makes all the sense in the world!

...which is part of the problem, as already touched on. The only album I have in which I like only two tracks has...four tracks. Only two are the original recordings of the music, and one an interview. Based on other live recordings I've heard of them, too, the live track isn't good. I aught to see them if they ever come around... (it's TaaB, BTW)

 

[pds6]

K2Grey says:
Quote:

I feel that as long as it is possible for people to get the CD for free instead of paying money for it, they will download the CD. End of story.

I have better things to do than download songs from people I do not know. The quality sucks and God knows what you are getting. I honestly do not think I am alone when I say that I am more than willing to pay sub-five dollars for an album.

How many good songs are on most albums? Maybe three or four. Why not sell an album for $3.99. Everybody really wants two or three songs on most albums. The record company is getting another dollar for 6 or so songs that nobody was going to download and pay for anyways.

I have an absolute aversion to paying $15.00 for something I may or may not like. I would have little concern if I could spread my risk by purchasing three or four albums for that same $15.00. The odds are that I would find something I would like.

I would add that these additional albums would never be purchased by me at a $15.00 per album cost. The record company is selling me an album I may have purchased and giving me two albums I would never have bought. I have also found that music purchases create more music purchases.

This may be a case of me being a bit naive, but I truly believe a good product, attractively priced in a user friendly format can work.

 

[K2Grey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pds6 I have better things to do than download songs from people I do not know. The quality sucks and God knows what you are getting. I honestly do not think I am alone when I say that I am more than willing to pay sub-five dollars for an album.

I'd waffle on the rest of your post, depending on mood. Maybe people will shell out the money, maybe they will download it and rationalize to themselves using a variety of excuses. I agree that you are not alone but I cannot guess as to the exact percentages of the population that will be willing to pay <$5 for an album, whether that is economically feasible, etc.

But, there are plenty of torrents that have well encoded stuff. So I would disagree that the quality sucks or that you do not know what you are getting.

 

[pds6]

K2Grey says:
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But, there are plenty of torrents that have well encoded stuff.

I understand that torrents in particular, user groups, have become the new "source". Presently, I would say that a large, but still a significant minority use torrents and user groups.

I believe the true danger to the record and movie industry is the mass storage disks (blue ray ... et al). The internet is still kinda slow. Within two years we can PM each other and easily exchange 50 gb's of storage on a $5.00 disk.

The record industry are walking dead. They can either create a relatively pleasant experience on the internet or continue to die. A very deep and detailed website with attractively priced music "may" save the day and help turn the tide.

Free is hard to beat, but I think people are and will be fair to the artists. Now its time for the record company to be fair with the consumers.

 

[regal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pds6 K2Grey says: How many good songs are on most albums? Maybe three or four. Why not sell an album for $3.99. Everybody really wants two or three songs on most albums. The record company is getting another dollar for 6 or so songs that nobody was going to download and pay for anyways. .

You are listening to the wrong albums then. I wouldn't even think of cutting up my albums, it ruins the artists intentions if he/she had any.

 

[pds6]

regal says:
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I wouldn't even think of cutting up my albums, it ruins the artists intentions if he/she had any.

I don't disagree with your statement. Nonetheless, you are cherry picking. That was not my point.

 

[K2Grey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by regal You are listening to the wrong albums then. I wouldn't even think of cutting up my albums, it ruins the artists intentions if he/she had any.

An album need not be a concept one or take itself seriously in order to be good to listen to.

There's this one band whose music I sometimes listen to, where I listen to like, 2-3 tracks from each album tops, since their music all sounds sort of the same (seems to be a common problem with more mainstream stuff). But those 2-3 tracks are actually quite good from my perspective.

Of course some stuff is better listened to straight through and I want to stab the person who invented those "best of" style classical CDs where they have a Frankenstein collection of 10 individual movements from all over the place.