RE: N.A.M.M show, GEAR prices !!!

["Ott, John" <John_Ott@ATK.COM>]

        >>>quote>>>>>
> From:         Andre Cholmodeley
> Reply To:     @monmouth.com
> Sent:         Friday, December 12, 1997 4:45 PM
> To:   John_Ott@ATK.COM
> Subject:      Re: N.A.M.M show, GEAR prices !!!
> 
> > 
> > >lot of manufacturers don't want the general public to know what
> price
> > 
> > >they're selling their products to retailers for.....ocaasionaly
> criticized for being exclusionary to
> > the consumer. In fact, it is sometimes characterized as a kind of
> Callous
> > Cabal of Capitalistic Chuckleheads scheming up ever more devious
> ways to
> > separate the starving musician from his/her last farthing. What it
> really
> > is is sore feet.
> 
> here's my .02cents....regar0ding the issue of gear prices...
> 
> How come in the last, say 20 years (or 30, etc) computer chips,
> electronic
> components, micro-wiring and soldering technology and technique,
> plastic,
> have all been greatly improved in quality and been slashed in price.
> 
> Every consumer iterm that involves these components has become
> drastically,
> amazingly cheaper, yet vasly higher in quality, than 20 or 30 years
> back -
> clock radios, cassette decks, walkmans, VCRs, computers like the ones
> we're
> all on right now, etc.
> 
> Yet musical gear, effects processors, many synths, tuners, etc all
> cost AS
> MUCH, sometimes MORE than they did years ago. Of course - many
> exceptions
> to the rule.... but in general, c'mon!!!! why do the people that
> support ,
> yes, a smaller industry, hav to keep paying while the production costs
> go
> down for all these manufacturers??? is it just supply & demand ?? why
> does
> a BOSS TU12 tuner cost like $60-80 , just the same that it did 10
> years
> ago??? Or most rackmount effects???again, there are lots of bargains
> out
> there, but, as anyone who has looked thru a blue book can see,
> musicians,
> who can sometimes least afford it, shoulder an odd set of pricing
> structures/strictures.
> 
> I smell a rat.
> 
> andre , wicked looper of the east
> > >>>> end quote>>>
> 
        Your model of cost doesn't include R&D.  That cost is spread out
        over the life of the unit.  That's why new stuff costs more and
then
        later drops in price.  How a company recoups R&D depends on how 
        they perceive demand.  There is a balance between trying to
recoup
        costs and pricing yourself out of the market. Electronics for
music
        will cost more than VCRs and home stereo because of the lower
        demand and less opportunity for the vendor to recoup their cost
        and make a profit.  That's why effect processors have not
dropped
        in price as much as home electronics.  Our job as musicians is
to show how useful these devices are and increase demand and lower costs
for all.  Demand will lower costs more than any break through in
manufacturing and electronics. 

        Just passing on one of the more interesting lectures in my
Graduate school Computer Architecture class/ (VPI class of 96)

        later
        John