Fallout from online music sharing

[Exhaust Port]

Universal Music is throwing a bone to the consumer on October 1st by lowing the prices of CD's by close to 20%. Now it could be possible to buy a brand new CD for less than $10.



USA Today Article


So will this work? I think at this point it's too little too late.

[2-1B]

The people getting sued right now won't even have the chance to get CDs at a lower price . . . not if they have to pay legal fees.

[Rogue II]

I heard about this on the news last week. It certainly makes sense. Blank CDs are so cheap, plus the abundance of .mp3s on the internet.

I really don't buy the sob story about people losing their jobs at record stores. Most record stores (like Sam Goody) overcharge for cds compared to Walmart, Best Buy, or Circuit City. I wonder if people felt bad for the horse and buggy supply retailers back in the early 1900s after the invention of the automobile.

By the way, the most shocking thing to me in that article was the fact that they still make cassette tapes.

[QLD]

I plan to never buy a CD again (except for very VERY rare circumstances), until they lower the average price below 7.99.

[Kidhuman]

Well kind of related but I heard on the radio today that they selected 261 people who were downloading music and are filing charges against them.

I think reducing the price and doing this to people is definitly gonna make an impact on CD sales. CD sales are down 31% from 3 years ago and they blame it all onfile sharing and downloading music. I say horse-poop, it had to do with the price of them mostly.

[stillakid]

I'm curious about something. Say you (anyone of us) buy a CD at normal retail price. Then, because you enjoy it so much you set a little lemonade-type stand out by the road, wherein you have a CD burner set up. Anyone at all can arrive at your stand with a blank CD in hand, and for no exchange of money or anything, you copy your CD onto their blank CD.

This is essentially the way that we all shared our LP's back in the day, albeit it was to 8-track or to cassettes. Nobody seemed to bat an eye. More than that, the record industry has given away their biggest hits for free for years via FM radio. Anyone with a decent stereo receiver and a cassette recorder (and a little patience) had no need to ever visit a record store.

So is the problem they're having the shear volume of content that is being shared now? Or has it always been the same principle that's under fire, just now they have decided to make an issue out of it because they have the ability to actually track people down? Would they even bother trying to seek and destroy downloaders if it was a super-huge hassle to do so, much like it would have been in the old days when people just did this door to door?

See, it's fairly obvious that they discovered that they could overcharge for CD's and get away with it. But now that their bottom line is lessened (quick reminder that nobody has yet to actually lose any money...they're just making a little less of it these days), and they have the ability to identify the sharers, they feel very threatened despite the fact that online filing sharing has actually improved interest in music overall, but instead of trying to make peace, they are scaring the bejesus out of people and will only further alienate their customer base.

Seems weird to me. I'm just trying to understand the logic on their part.

[Exhaust Port]

When the record company took a hit in the early 90's they blamed it on the explosion of used CD sales.

I can honestly say that the price of CD's has kept me from purchasing anything new in the last 4 years with a few exceptions. I use to buy about 50 CD's a year but that was at a point when I could find a new release for about $9. At some point in the late 90's those deals were long gone and I found that I couldn't buy a CD for anything less than $13 quickly. My CD habit was squashed and I've averaged about 3-4 new CD's a year since then.

I've only downloaded 2 songs ever and they were both over 10 years old. I just never quite got into that whole deal. Call me a sucker for packaging. This price drop could very well bring me back to purchasing a few more CD's. I did read some where else that one of the other big CD manufacturers decided not to follow Universal Music's lead and has kept their prices the same. Lower the prices or else we won't buy, it's as simple as that.

[Lowly Bantha Cleaner]

Well the music industry finally has listened to all the criticism it has received in the last few years regarding the inflated prices they charge for CDs (with a large percentage going mostly to them and not the artist). I suspect the overall drop in sales spoke more loudly than fan complaints. But with the availability of music that is free, that is easily accessible, and the fact that you can find pretty much any song that you ever wanted to own, you kind of wonder why people buy CDs anymore?

This price drop won't really effect me. I remember the last time I bought a CD that actually came out the week it was released was way back in 1997. Most of the CDs I buy now are a decade or two old, and are not as badly priced.

[JediTricks]

Under $10 is a good start, if I can slap down only 1 bill (one without a "2" in the denomination) for an album, get change back, and not have to futz around with downloading, that's how I'd like it. I don't DL music at all, but I also don't buy CDs anymore and rarely listen to commercial radio. The system doesn't work and the executives want to find a way to keep their cushy salaries, but once they finally realize that the consumer is sick of paying them so much, things should get better.

[Tonysmo]

I dont listen to music anymore.. Ive started to boycott everything.

ok.. Im lying through my teeth. I'm currently sitting at my desk at work, this very moment.. jammin to a very small amount of my mp3's..

I have probably at the most over 6 gigs at home. Why? well.. The way I see it. Im a HUGE thief. other than that..
through my teen years, I bought into hundreds of cassette tapes. HUNDREDS..
now. being that it was about 15 years ago, tapes have a certain quality.. they dont last folks. they just dont. so, most of my mp3s are to replace ALL those tapes I used to have. Do I feel they owe me this? nope. but I think I should have to go out and buy all those tapes over again on cds to replace what I once had? nope. Will I ever try to make a profit off of the music I have? nope.

most of the stuff I have is 80's.. 70's.. even some 50's and 60's. can you even find stuff like that on cd's? maybe so.. but Im not going to try.

With todays technology, they can shut down all the file sharing programs.. you can still record CD quaility music from FM stations directly to a CD. So whats different? nothing. They cant stop it. They cant even contain it.

Whats funny.. is the fact that all these file sharing programs are just nice interfaces for the ( not to hurt anyones feelings ) non-power users.. IRC still remains a huge staple in file sharing, and it always will be. Whats even more exciting than that? Newsgroups. 90% of the people trying to stop downloaders probably are unaware newsgroups even exsist, and if they do know about them, they probably have no idea what kind of content they can hold. The newsgroups will never go away.

I dunno... there really seems to be no point to any of this. It isnt going away. I dont feel the slightest bit bad about what I have. I will continue to find out of print, and other hard to find albums from my youth and beyond. I will continue to build my mp3 collection. I will have the ULTIMATE home jukebox. ha.. I already do.

feel the way I do? http://www.boycott-riaa.com/

certainly dont mean to spout off, as everyone has there own opinons on how to conduct themselves, and the rights and wrongs of this.. just stating my thoughts..