I just spent $18 on two CDs

Cafe Society
1

Well, since I had a $15 gift certificate, it was really only $3.

I bought Veni Vidi Vicious by The Hives for $10.

I bought Topsy-Turvy by The Apex Theory for $8.

Thank you Best Buy, for sane prices on CD’s. Also, the Apex Theory CD has a list price of $10! How do they get away with a $10 pricetag on what sounds to be a professionally produced CD, when every other CD in the store has a list of $15-18?

Anyway, the two albums are awesome, and I’m glad at least the Hives are getting airplay on MTV. I think I’ll try to make the local rock station play The Apex Theory tonight.

askol

2

It’s cheap because they want you to buy it. It’s Apex Theory’s first full-length CD and their label (Dreamworks) wants to build up a following that will then buy the next CD at $18. Though if they have a really big hit single on this one, Dreamworks will jack the price. So be glad you bought it while it was cheap.

3

Don’t get me started on this…(OK, so you didn’t really specifically address your post to ME, but, hey, I read it and now you gotta deal with it)

The actual product – glass-mastered CD, inserts, 4-color printing, jewel case, etc – costs between $1 and $2. Your average local bar band can have their CD mass-produced by someone like Discmakers at a cost of about $1500 for 1000 CDs. Obviously, the cost-per-unit is significantly less when you manufacture 2000, 3000, 5000, 8000 CDs and upwards.

Sure, throw in a few cents per CD if the label paid for studio time, a little more for other amenities, but the end result is the same - there’s a vast difference between cost and retail…

I produce short-run CDs for small bands, using an “audio-only” CD burner, a laptop computer running Photoshop and an Epson printer stocked with aftermarket ink cartridges. I do everything by myself and by hand, and I still only charge $3 per CD. It only leaves me a profit of $1 per CD (averages out to be even less than Kathy Lee pays her child laborers per hour), but the bands can sell these CDs for $10 or less and make 200% profit. And when they have the resources, I always recommend companies such as Discmakers, where the cost-per-unit is less and the profit margin higher, while still keeping music affordable.

Yes, there are many benefits to being on a major label, but when you really break down the numbers, idiocies such as the record industry’s attack on Napster-esque file sharing becomes incredibly laughable. Hell, there’s a reason why Metallica have become embarrasing while I have come to love Weezer and Wilco, and it’s not just because of “Re-Load.”

Sorry this is pretty much off topic, but I warned you!

4

You seem to forget that some of the 18 dollars goes to pay the artists.

5

Actually, very little of that $18 goes to the artist. I meant to ramble on about this fact in my previous post, but I thought I was going way off topic as it was.

Most musicians make the lion’s share of their profits on the road. Most of your CD dollar goes to paying for things like, say, giving Mariah Carey a shit-ton of money to leave your label, covering the millions of dollars you spent promoting your more popular artists (oh, feel the irony – more money is spent promoting, say, Michael Jackson than Wilco [different labels I know, but stay hypothetical with me], when promoting Jacko is like promotin’ oxygen), and paying the salaries of record execs. The stereotypes exist because they are pretty much true. The Man gets most of the $$$…

The $8.50 per CD that a band could make by manufacturing their own CDs through a company such discmakers (I promise I don’t even know anyone who works there, they’re just the best example of a low-cost CD manufacturer who is popular among artists) and selling them for $10 is, from my knowledge, much more than they would receive from a major label.

There’s so much more I could rant about, but this isn’t my thread and someone really should just make me shut up…

6

The one I don’t get is how BBuy and CCity can both sell CD’s for between 10-14 bucks, but then other huge chains like media play, sam “shit suckin” goody, and others still put theres “on sale” at $16 bucks. Its insane. Any indepentant release that SG MAY carry, or anything off roadrunner, are gonna cost you between 16-19 bucks.

I know it has to do with the volume that BBuy and CCity move, but I am sure that Sam Goody must move at least as much music as BBuy simply because THATS ALL THEY SELL (and videos), and there is one in every crappy mall in america.

7

Hopefully, with record sales declining, the major labels will clue in to the fact that $18 is TOO MUCH to pay for a CD. The store that I (mostly) shop at charges at most $15 for a CD, and their usual price is $14.

And even BestBuy, which charges $12-14 for new CDs, still charge $16-18 for the ones that aren’t right out front.

Does anyone know what became of the price fixing investagations by the FTC?

8

From what I understand, they’re called “loss leaders”. Best Buy and other big electronics places sell CDs for cheap (sometimes below wholesale) in order to entice you to come into the store and possibly buy a new CD player, computer, or whatever.

I seriously can’t comprehend how places like Sam Goody and the other mall-based record stores stay in business. I guess people are just too damn lazy to go to indie record stores big electronics retailers.

I currently live in a town where I can only buy CDs at a Wal Mart or a Sam Goody - I’ll never, ever shop at either of them. Wal Mart because they won’t carry “controversial” music or anything with an Explicit Lyrics label, and Sam Goody because they charge way, way too much.

I used to live in towns that had great independent record stores - new CDs were under fifteen bucks and there were plenty of used ones. I buy all my music when I travel out of town - I seriously have not purchased a CD in my home town in the past three years that I’ve lived here. I buy a lot of CDs and stockpile when I go out of town, or I order them online.

As for artists making money off major label album sales, most make less than a buck per album. Plus, they often have to pay back the record company for recording costs, promotion, videos, etc. etc. before they see a dime of that. If your record dosen’t sell 500,000 copies or so, you’re screwed and may actually owe them money - even though a HALF A MILLION people bought one of your albums. That’s so wrong.

You should read this article by famed/infamous record producer Steve Albini:

http://www.arancidamoeba.com/mrr/problemwithmusic.html

9

<minor hijack>
Could you please tell me what the single off this cd is? The DJs never say, and while I’ve looked at the song listings, none of the titles rings a bell…
</minor hijack>

I occasionally buy cds at best-buy but the indie store in the same city, ** Bull Moose Music** is usually cheaper and I’d rather give them my business since they support local artists and best-buy doesn’t.