Re: average loop music CD price

[Andre LaFosse <altruist@earthlink.net>]

Crossedout@aol.com wrote:

> Personally, I'm a fan of people who put reasonable prices on thier music,
> rather than "competing" with the "average" price for cds, which is way 
>too
> high in most cases.
> It drives me up a wall to see something I might want to check out priced
> outrageously, when a label like Dark Beloved Cloud can take the 
>Spaceheads'
> "Around The Outside" cd* and sell it for $3.... POSTPAID.
> I can understand there is a higher set of operating costs involved in
> exporting your work to another country, but is there still a reason to 
>put a
> base price of $12 on something that costs less than $2 to manufacture?

As someone who's spent the last nine or ten months paying bills by
ringing up CDs at a couple of chain record stores, I can tell you that
CDs tend to get priced in accordance to what labels think they can sell
it for -- obvious enough.  But this can vary from one artist to another,
and from one localle to another.  

For instance, I've noticed one chain in particular, which has a very
limited selection of almost nothing but current hit-oriented CDs, tends
to price at an average of $17.99.  That's pretty damned high, but this
particular chain is found mostly in malls or major shopping areas, and
caters towards the average mainstream consumer who's only interested in
what's currently hot, who isn't inclined to seek out other retail
outlets, and (most importantly) who doesn't know better than to shell
out that much for a CD.  (It can get worse than that; I've seen prices
of $19.99 for single-CD sets by people like Roberta Flack and
Page/Plant.)

I know that at least one major chain used to vary the prices
geographically -- that is, a store in an affluent suburban area would
price items higher than a store in a lower-income region.  Furthermore,
stores that are more popular or more of an attraction due to size,
selection, or what have you can sometimes get away with charging more
since they tend to generate a certain amount of traffic and interest
strictly by virtue of their localle and/or nature.  (It's not always the
store's choice, either; a distributor or label might insist on charging
a large "attraction site" chain store branch more of a wholesale cost
than they would charge John Doe's House of Rare and Imported
Out-of-print Independent Vinyl, because they know that the former will
be able to absorb the cost more, both in terms of their buying power and
in terms of re-selling to their customer base).

I've also noticed that independent stores generally price things at
least one or two dollars lower than larger corporate chain stores; the
flip side is that the chains generally have a larger selection (albiet
one that might not overlap with that of a smaller specialty or
indie-oriented store).  

It ultimately depends on what the motivations and needs of a label are. 
If somebody's selling a CD for $3 postpaid, they're definitely offering
a substantial bargain.  On the other hand, you've got to wonder how much
of a profit they're making, or even if they're making a profit at all; a
lot of smaller indie labels tend to operate in the red on a fairly
regular basis.  On the other hand, a major label is, by definition, a
profit-driven venture and is therefore inclined to charge as much as
they can for an item.  

If Capitol records can get away with putting an average price of $16.99
- $17.99 on the new Beastie Boys album and then watch it sell 681,000
copies in the first week alone (albiet at a reduced sale price), then
they don't have much incentive to drop the cost.  On the other hand,
you'll have a hard time selling records by artists like Ui or Cul De Sac
at *any* price since they're so obscure and hard-to-find, so they're
liable to be priced lower.  (I've seen some popular alternative acts get
initial releases priced at $11.99, and then jump up to $16.99 once they
become popular.)  

I've often heard it said that cassette tapes cost more to manufacture in
bulk than CDs do, but of course that's not reflected in the retail
world.  For that matter it's not reflected in the manufacturing world,
either: I've never seen an ad for a duplication or replication house
that has offered lower prices on CDs than on cassettes.  Either the
stats about manufacturing costs are wrong (unlikely, as I've heard it
quoted numerous times from numerous sources), or else replicators,
labels, and just about everyone else does whatever they can get away
with.

I'd say that in the ever-thorny realm of trying to balance art and
commerce, the question isn't "Are you going to get screwed," but rather,
"Just how much are you going to get screwed?"  

--Andre