retail cd prices to plummet

umg steps up to the plate and cuts cd prices.

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How nice of them, instead of swindling us out of 19$ they are swindling us out of $13.

$13 for a good CD is really not ridiculous... it's $13 for something by the Backstreet Boys or Britney that is a swindle.

All CDs should be less than $10 Anything higher than that is ridiculous. The artist is seeing pennies on the dollar anyway, the damn things cost about $1 to manufacture, and if the record labels can't sell a record without spending more than $5, $6 a CD in publicity -- they need to get better music.

Great Music: The Cheapest Publicity of All

Artists should start eliminating the middle man and start selling their own crap!

they could've just done that in the first place instead of suiing downloaders

I bet it would've helped the problem a bit

but yeah, anything over 10 bucks is annoying

Thats why I mostly buy used CD's from a small chain around where I live.

I buy my music from Kazaa, they haven't sent me a bill yet though.

Well, remember it's $13 MSRP, so that means if you buy your CD's in a discount store such as Target (not Wal-Mart; never buy a CD in Wal-Mart) or Best Buy, the price will probably drop from the $14.95 they charge now to $8.95 or so.

ok mister "i LOVE all the free cd's i get"

i think this could be a really good thing.

this is going to have a huge impact on the industry as a whole, but also on your retailers. now, the cool indie stores that you want to support and buy cds from will be selling their cds for around $10, making it an even playing field with best buy, circuit city, target.

all these retailers that have been struggling to get people to come into their stores and failing because they have to charge $17-19 vs. $13-14 at best buy... they now don't have to worry about that as much, and can go back to doing what they do best, which is making a cd buying experience more than just a front for trying to get you to purchase a dvd player or a video camera or a refridgerator.

Who are UMG? And what do they have to do with CD prices? And why did that guy claim that the flash intro was hilarious? I'm so confused.....

UMG = Universal Music Group

they own interscope, geffen, dreamworks, universal, motown, island def jam, and a whole bunch of smaller labels.. basically the biggest of the five major label families. like Vito Corleone.

by changing their prices, it's assumed that everyone else is going to have to follow suit.

Music prices aren't so ridiculous as everyone would have you believe. Considering the massive machine that's in place, the money is needed to keep it oiled.

If people want to critize the fact that the music industry is decided and controlled by a quite elite few, feel free. Atlhough an alternative scheme is somewhat difficult to formulate as long as capitalism reigns supreme...

Heehee, and the rest I write off on my taxes. I'm sticking up for the little guy!

They are too expensive, period. If you need proof go compare the price between a DVD and a hit CD sometime. CD/album = cost somewhere between $100,000 -- $400,000 to produce. DVD/movie = a million dollars would be a cheap movie. CD will be $16.99 or 17.99, and the DVD will be $19.99, when the CD is 60 or so minutes of nothing but music, and the DVD is 2 hours plus of movie, plus goodies.

i completely agree.... but that just means that we have to do something to fix the machine. it's been getting more and more ridiculous over the years to the point where we're wasting massive amounts of money on marketing sub-standard artists and throwing money around to keep artists happy and to keep the executives happy. it's a big ego game when you get to the top of the labels.. no one wants to change the way things work. finally UMG is trying to do that.

even with the price drop it's not enough to get me to purchase cds.

cds should be less than cassettes it made out of metal and sandwich plastic 10 dollars is still to much...
look how much more of a profit they make off making cds than cassettes

supply and demand

yeah but just a good cd gets WAY more plays in your lifetime than even your most favorite movie.

So the fact that I might play it more, or for longer, justifies it being more expensive?

I'd understand that rationale if you could say "CDs are manufactured to last longer than DVDs.", but they're not. Each will last precisely as long in the same conditions. Under normal conditions, in fact, a DVD will last a long time longer than a CD.

I buy a lot of Indie cds which are almost always a lot cheaper than cds produced by artists signed to major labels.Independent bands certainly put out better material but I noticed I was paying around ten bucks for about 30 min. of material in many cases. It seems that the average length of major label cds are closer to twice that. Also I buy a lot of used and sometimes I feel a little guilty that the artist isn't getting any of the dough; even if it's only a couple of pennies.oh well fuck it. I'm just gonna keep stealing more cds from work.

ohya i read an article about cd rot they the cds can delaminate and these are cds from major distributors