Record labels still don't get it.

satchmosatchmo
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
It's still too expensive. I know it's a start but these fat cats at record labels have been living the good life too long. Dropping the price to $15 won't stop the downloading of MP3's.

Once Apple Canada begins offering songs (my guess is $1.39/song), no one will buy a CD. Most CD only contain two good songs anyways so why spend $15, when you can have what you want immediately for about $3.



To be competitive, all CD's should be at $10 (cdn), $12 max, for special releases.



http://globeandmail.com/servlet/stor...tory/Business/

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Randy Lennox, president and chief executive officer of Universal Music Canada, said it is recommending that its hit CDs be priced at $14.99 and that older CDs be $18.99 while other older ones, such as Elton John, be $9.99.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    What's really sad is the labels who are using iTMS and other services to gouge their customers even more: How many albums are there on Apple's service that you can buy... except for the hit single? If you want that, you have to go buy the CD. So they've set things up so that it's explicitly $15-$20 for one song, and then 99 cents a song for the filler (unless you bought the filler as a package for $10).



  • Reply 2 of 8
    patchoulipatchouli Posts: 402member
    Well, I guess it depends on the type of music you're into, but I personally find the best tracks on a CD are the ones that never made it to radio and therefore certainly not the hits. So, I usually go for the whole album anyway if I like the artist or want to explore a new artist. But, leaving that hit single off is pretty sneaky and clearly demonstrates how they try to suck the most cash out of us music lovers.



    It's been said that the big 5 (label conglomerates) charge stores $10 per disc. So are they now forcing these stores to stop dramatically marking up the cost, or are they meeting them half way? (charging them a bit less, so the stores can charge the customer less). In other words, could a store (say HMV) pocket half the discount themselves, and offer the other half to the consumer by only knocking half the discount off the CD price?
  • Reply 3 of 8
    influenzainfluenza Posts: 146member
    Personally, I've never found a song I was looking for on Apple Music Store. I buy almost nothing but imports, soundtracks, and stuff from the 1970s and 80s. I haunt used CD stores for bargains on those oldies (God, songs from the 80s are OLDIES now!) and shell out $30 a pop for imports on Amazon.



    I don't really expect the American recording industry to cater to my peculiar tastes, but I do look forward to the day when they realize and accept that the physical printing and distribution of recorded media is obsolete. The sooner they stop trying to legally enforce their own stagnation and start adapting, the sooner the whole world will embrace the trend and weirdos like me WILL be able to buy our music online without paying insane prices for printing, shipping, and obsolete middlemen. Truth be told, I look forward to a day when every online shopping service is as convenient and easy to use as the Apple Music Store. I don't even really use the thing, and I've already been spoiled by it!
  • Reply 4 of 8
    whisperwhisper Posts: 735member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Influenza

    I don't really expect the American recording industry to cater to my peculiar tastes, but I do look forward to the day when they realize and accept that the physical printing and distribution of recorded media is obsolete.



    It won't become completely obsolete until the online places use loss-less compression.
  • Reply 5 of 8
    influenzainfluenza Posts: 146member
    Fair enough. Theoritically obsolete, then. The means exist; they just have to be implemented. Of course, not everybody has a high speed internet connection yet. For that matter, not everyone has a computer or a CD burner. The day will come, though, and soon.



    I think a technology officially becomes standard when something like 85% of consumers use it. Where does online shopping stand at the moment, anyone?
  • Reply 6 of 8
    artman @_@artman @_@ Posts: 2,546member
    I guess this is still on topic...read this...





    Song swappers flock to invitation-only Internet



    "SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- Just as Prohibition drove drinkers underground in the roaring '20s, the music industry's crackdown is pushing many song swappers away from the open Internet and into what amount to cyberspace speakeasies."



    As long as there are Ian Clarke's, computers and the internet...there will always be somewhere and somehow a way to get something for nothing.
  • Reply 7 of 8
    bartobarto Posts: 2,246member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Whisper

    It won't become completely obsolete until the online places use loss-less compression.



    YEAH RIGHT. High bitrate lossy compression encoded from the original 24-bit 96KHz master sounds a million times better than CD "quality".



    Lossless DOES NOT mean quality. In fact, for the same file size, it means LOW quality.



    Barto
  • Reply 8 of 8
    whisperwhisper Posts: 735member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Barto

    YEAH RIGHT. High bitrate lossy compression encoded from the original 24-bit 96KHz master sounds a million times better than CD "quality".



    Lossless DOES NOT mean quality. In fact, for the same file size, it means LOW quality.



    Barto



    Then increase the file size.
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