CD prices are being slashed to help thwart music piracy...

TiTUS · 09-28-2003, 09:30 PM

Just heard some news on tv that tomorrow some record companies are going to be slashing the SRP on music cd's to 12.99 down from 20+... This is an effort to thwart music piracy apparently and more music companies are probably going to follow suite...

interesting stuff, and to think that finally they are dropping prices because of all the internet music piracy... too little too late??

TiTUS

MeanGT · 09-28-2003, 10:01 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by TiTUS

Just heard some news on tv that tomorrow some record companies are going to be slashing the SRP on music cd's to 12.99 down from 20+... This is an effort to thwart music piracy apparently and more music companies are probably going to follow suite...

interesting stuff, and to think that finally they are dropping prices because of all the internet music piracy... too little too late??

TiTUS

If I want a good CD I see it worth about $10 to me. But I am not really ready to pay more than that. Perhaps the recording industry will see my business again someday afterall.

Gutter · 09-28-2003, 11:59 PM

I'm willing to buy a CD at $13. I'm not willing to buy a CD at $19+. I'm glad they finally got the message.

cproaudio · 09-29-2003, 12:22 AM

I heard about that a few weeks ago. There're only a few record companies that're doing it, not all of them. 12.99 is still too expensive. You can get DVD movies below $10. Walmart has movies for $5.88 At that price I still think is a buck too much. Record companies need to do WAY better than 12.99 a CD. $5 or $6 a CD is more like it. People will still download music before they spend $12.99 a CD.

Seraph · 09-29-2003, 01:15 AM

It all depends on supply and demand. If I like the music enough and if I can find every song and download it under 20 minutes, then it's worth it for me to download. I just calculate how much time I waste trying to find something vs just going out and buying it. Since I used to earn about 40/h after taxes, if it takes more than 1/2 hour to download a CD, it's cheaper to go buy it.

Also, downloaded MP3 are not up to my quality. I normally encode all my mp3 at 256k vs 128 that most people use. But even with that said, they should decrease the prices of music CDs down a lot. At 20 bucks, it is true that I'll try to download the CD first. At 12 bucks, there are a lot more chances that I'd go out and buy it.

L

fluffy2097 · 09-29-2003, 01:32 AM

With the **** they're passing off as CD's these days, they couldn't pay me to burn them. Most CD's these days have about 45 minutes of music. Of this music, there are 2 good songs, track 2, and track 5. The audio is poorly mixed and now they want to force me to buy bastard digital laser disks that won't play in a CD-rom.

If I got 72 minutes of well mixed, well produced, GOOD music. I'd have no problem paying $12 bucks for it. As it stands, screw them. Most of my CD's are imports anyways.

Snootch · 09-29-2003, 12:07 PM

Yeah, nowadays it seems like most music is the same. And any good song is the only good one on the disc. Why pay $15 for that? I download most of my music, but if there's a album that I really like, I buy the CD, because I can rip track off it at 192Kbps+ and get the cover art.

hijinks21 · 09-29-2003, 12:17 PM

i went into best buy a week ago and noticed the DVD for chicago had the complete sound track on it. So I went over and noticed the CD was $2 less then the DVD. THe movie industry has it right.. give the consumer great content for a great price. The record industry has it wrong

gork · 09-29-2003, 01:04 PM

Declining profits in the music industry have almost nothing to do with Internet piracy. I do say almost nothing because it's definately happening -- just hard to tell the exact affect it's having because it's so small.

The average price for a CD has risen 16 percent since 1997, and that figure is adjusted for inflation. In 1997, the average price for a CD was $13.19. Now it is $15.25 (in 1997 dollars) .. on the shelf it's looking more like 18-19 bucks.

New releases have dropped 14 percent since 1999 from 38,900 new titles to just 33,433 in 2002 (and 31,734 in 2001)

As formats age, revenue has dropped 13 percent since 1999 from $14.2BB to $12.3BB. The CD is kind of at the point where cassette tapes found themselves at the introduction of the CD. The only difference is that the record companies are as of yet unwilling to sell music in the digital formats that people want for some strange reason. I mean, they've been doing it since 1983 with the CD and peple obviously have bought those in record numbers..

Sources: Wired Magazine, Buerau of Labor, Nielsen SoundScan, RIAA, George Ziemann

jakeep · 09-29-2003, 01:21 PM

Yeah I have read a very similar article myself, but it was generalized at the UK market, in short it said that the drop in sales has been about 15% over like the last 2 years but the total number of record releases has dropped 20%....

which to me as a simple man, indicates that the record companies are acctually doing better than they were a few years ago...

they are just not chucking out as much crap and hence their gross turnover is quite likley not as high.. and thats what they are whining about!