Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - CD Prices to drop up to $6

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The Register's has an interesting take on the whole idea.

Quote:

Universal's CD price cut comedy gets five stars

By Ashlee Vance in Chicago

Posted: 05 Sep 2003 at 18:32 GMT

Step back, take a deep breath, gather some courage and then let out the deepest, abdominal-wrenching gut laugh you've ever experienced. Universal Music Group has lowered CD prices.

The hilarity of the situation has gone unnoticed by most media outlets. They've portrayed Universal as a brave white knight taking a bold stand to try and correct a very wrong situation. File-traders have eroded the music labels' revenue stream.

But a finely-tuned organization such as Universal isn't going to be undone by millions of teenagers. It's taking the daring, some say revolutionary, step of risking precious margins in favor of high volume sales. Maybe if we price the products low enough, we can bring consumers back.

"We are in the middle of a terrible situation where our music is being stolen," Doug Morris, chairman of Universal, told The New York Times. "We need to invigorate the market, and as an industry leader we felt we had to be bold and make a move."

Be bold? Industry leader? That's where the joke begins.

As The Times points out, this is the first CD price cut since the media format came on the scene in the 1980's. Think about that for a minute. New format, volumes low, prices high. Ronald Reagan was president.

Since the 80's, the record labels' have seen CD sales surge. What do we mean by surge? Let's hop over to the Clinton years, when the CD was a well accepted, popular format and see.

In 1993, CD makers shipped 495 million units and brought in $6.5 billion, according to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). By 2000, units had almost doubled to 942.5 million with $13.2 billion in revenue. That's quite a run.

The labels' performance was, no doubt, helped by a "promotional program" the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) likes to call price-fixing. The U.S. government found that the labels were collectively working to keep CD prices high, during these glorious boom years. Where was the white knight Universal then? Oh, right, probably price-fixing.

Laughing yet? If not, here you go.

"What we're trying to show people is that music is a good value, even if you have to pay for it," Zach Horowitz, president of Universal Music, told The New York Times.

Well, yeah, it's a good value when you aren't artificially keeping the prices high. It's also a good value when basic laws of economics are followed. As the supply of CDs sky-rocketed and the cost of the media plummeted, the price would be expected to go down. Two decades and four presidents is a long time to wait for a single price cut on what became a mass market good. CD players certainly went down in cost.

Thank goodness someone at Universal finally went to a macroeconomics course. Give that person a raise for taking night classes at the local community college.

Universal will lower its prices for a CD to $9.09 from $12.02. This means retailers could sell CDs for as low as $10 instead of the $16-$19 currently charged. That's genius! Forget the raise. Somebody give this reincarnation of John Maynard Keynes a medal.

$10 a CD. That's exactly the price music labels did not want retailers to sell their product at during the 1990's, the FTC found. But, come on, the Berlin Wall has fallen, the Soviet empire has collapsed, we even have robotic pet dogs now. Amazing things can happen in twenty-years.

The music label mob might not be the brightest bunch, but they come around eventually.

So if you are one of those pirates, we mean file-traders and not the music labels here, go on out to the store and make things right. Sure the economy has been obliterated over the past three years, but no group is hurting more than the recording industry. These music executives need help, and now they want to help you. Cash in that unemployment check or dip into the last bits of your severance package. CDs are cheap. They are good value. Now that's funny. ®

I definetely feel that this might increase sales again, because I know I can get any music for free, but I don't really like to. I would also rather have all the unecessary stuff you get when you buy a cd from a strore (jewel case, sleeve, case art, etc). I like that stuff.

POWER TO THE MUSIC! er somethin...

Quote:

Originally posted by Psivage
I hope they just don't reduce the number of songs on the CDs now.

I don't see the logic in this. A five minute CD costs as much to manufacture as an 80 minute one.

This is encouraging news. I'm not gonna give Universal a standing ovation just yet, but it's good to see steps being taken in the right directionj.

Quote:

Originally posted by Ganguro
it's stealing right?

It's not stealing, It's infringing copyright. Man the RIAA or BSA exec who pulled off that bit of NewSpeak was a genius.

In many places, public drunkenness is against the law, and so is vehicular homicide due to driving drunk. In many places, copyright infringement is against the law and so is theft. One is worse than the other. There's no point in pretending there's the same thing unless you want to inflate the perception of harm by associating the lesser with the greater wrong.

this is wonderful! i am far from innocent, i have massive ammount of porn i download. most music though, if i like it, i buy. if i can pay everything and donate here and take care of my pets i will buy a cd or two a month.

this happening and the services where you can cheaply purchase a song, to me, is awesome.

downright thievery is just fucked up.

at least someone had a reasonable idea. now i hope music i listen to may follow suit.

epitath, virgin, and some others..

Now if there were only some artists worth buying.

The days of Rock and Roll appear finished. There is no up and coming Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Led Zeplin, Clash, Eagles, Rolling Stones, Beatles, Who, Pink Floyd, Genesis, REM or U2.

I keep hoping for a saviour, but none appears to be on the horizon.

I remember the excitment that swirled around U2 back in 1981. This young really amazing band out of ireland that had a sound unlike any other. They were all 18 years old and were going to take on the music establishment. There's never been anything like that since 1981. How sad is that?

You can keep all the rap and country shit as far as i am concerned. I long for good alternative and Rock but there is NONE.

Erm, how about a weak attempt. Around 8th grade I remember $12-13 cd's, and inflation sure as hell doesn't account for a $6 jump. If they want to get me to buy cd's, sell them for ~$6.

As for the actual music, cd labels already regulate what most popular musicians produce, in EVERY genre (including rock, punk, pop, EVERYTHING) which is why many artists are able to belt out 3 mediocre cd's in a couple years, with a total of 12 good songs, instead of 1 great cd with 12 good songs. The artists are just given filler to sing for the rest of the cd's in the first scheme, but make 3x the profit in the same amount of time.

Unless record companies/sellers start actualy letting artists be artists, even if it means wiping the Britney Spears' and Justin Timberlakes from the face of music by letting them screw themselves over, and selling the cd's for a fair price, Kazaa will be my source.

Man, everyone seems so happy that the prices are coming down. Does anyone stop to look at why they can lower prices 1/3 of what they were selling them for. they are dropping the price $6 from $18. It most likely only cost them $2 to produce and package the CD. $1-2 goes to the artist, which means the grand total is $3-4 range to make, market and pay the artist for a CD. That means the rest of the $18 cost is pure profit. Now they are saying well we've held you hostage for so long that now you are willing to download music instead of buying it, we need to do something. I know lets just cut our profits in half. This will show we are trying real hard to get you to come back, and we will still be making a fortune, but you won't mind because now you can buy CD's for $10-12 bucks!!!! Sure goes to show that all the people who have been saying they are gouging us and fixing prices were right!!!!!

This is GREAT NEWS!

The fact is that I don;t buy any CD's except from Bands i have seen but now if the prices drop.... well I am ready to start buying again... GOOD NEWS Indeed!

Skippy

egads.

could people one day not say 'yadyayada rolling stones yadayada bob dylan yadayada rock and roll is dead and will never be again' ?

it's like the 'punk is dead'.

you guys could be just a tiny bit more realistic?

i don't like much of any current music but some kid, somewhere has talent.

rock is dead? bull. it's taking a nap.

its simple: provide a service where I can download the entire CD or any song I want online and burn my own CDs from those downloaded files and I'm signing up on launch day along with an assload of other people.

I'm tired of paying for special packaging, inserts, special edtion 2nd disc DVDs and other stuff.

Just give me the music in a digital format.

It's about time. I have always felt that the music industry shot itself in the foot by making CD's cost more than $10. I would gladly take a chance on a new group for 10 bucks, not for $19 though.

Cheaper CD's = More purchases from me.

Now I just need to find a CD or two worth buying, hmm. I'm gonna keep an eye out; Universal may still be selfish with their profits, but this is helping a consumer (me) out for sure.

Finally... I may actually start to buy CDs to save myself the trouble of downloading sketchy MP3 versions and hoping they sound ok, but then again, maybe not, haha.

I get most of my CDs for $12 already. Drop the price to $6 and then we'll talk about getting that "evil corporate empire" sign removed.

Still, this is a step in the right direction.

Quote:

Originally posted by Cynthetiq
bah.... i still have to see my money from the CD class action suit

The amount you will be paid will be based on the total number of claims filed, up to a maximum of $20.00 per claimant. Each claimant will be paid the same amount, regardless of the number of Music Products he/she purchased. <b><i>Note: If the number of claims filed would result in awards of less than $5.00 per claimant, there will be no cash distribution to individual consumers.</b></i> Rather, the cash portion of the Settlement shall be distributed to not-for-profit, charitable, governmental or public entities in each state, territory and possession, to be used for music-related purposes or programs.

Price gouging bastards... $6 is probably what a CD should've cost for the past 10 years.

$12 is still too much when you can get it for free on P2P or from a buddy who was dumb enough to buy it.

My solution that will never happen:

Set up terminals, much like ATMs, all over the place--in malls, at shopping centers, inside the doors at a grocery store, etc. They would be hooked up to the internet so music companies could transfer WAV files to them. You could then go to the machine, drop in a couple quarters, and put in a disc to burn the song on. You would have the option of a WAV file or MP3 file and, if you chose an MP3, what bit-rate you wanted. Next, insert your disc, hit Enter, and let it burn. A few seconds later you'd have the music you paid for, and the record industry could skip the retailers and make a fortune on their own. The machines could also have Firewire and USB 2.0 ports for downloading directly to an MP3 player.

This is the best idea ever for cheap and readily available music, and it will never be done. :mad: