Switched

Bullshit erkskindl . When you buy a CD, you are paying a TINY bit to the artist, a small amount to the cost to produce it, and the rest goes to people that have a monopoly and should be sued for antitrust. Of course you have to add a retail markup, BUT ONLINE THAT IS PALTRY... and it should be! All in all, a cd should cost about $2, and you can't use history as a pricing guide.
When someone pirates a cd, the artist gets ripped for a few cents, and NOBODY else gets hurt - period, and most of us would gladly toss a small fee to the artist who did the actual work. If you download, you do not cost the industry the price of a CD, as they never made one to steal, so if you would not have bought it in the firstplace, (and most people who download would not have bought it), it only HELPs the popularity of the artist to pirate their work.
Now if the industry would lower it price on CD's to the price they are actually worth... lets see... 2 good songs, about a buck or so online is what they go for I think, and 10 crappy ones - add 10 cents for that... $2.10 is what a CD should sell for. If it weren't for Christmas, the promo-production industry would be dead already and replaced by 100% web delivery by now. And I think they are about to go belly up if they don't change and change fast.
I already PAID for the artist on thousands of songs, but I have to buy every new media just so you can keep your Monopoly? Bullshit! I paid for the BeeGees 8 track and NOW I HAVE A RIGHT TO THE DIGITAL COPY AS I HAVE ALREADY PAID THE ARTIST!
Oh and by the way...
TRENT IS A GOD!

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THANX TRENT! let's hear it for a real rocker!
he's sooo right, the music industry ARE/IS greedy
thats why music sucks and people like Pdiddy and britney and coldplay even aerosmith are greedy bastards - its NOT about the music anymore, they are a part of the money hungry conspiracy too. FIGHT THE POWER! steal? no, that gives the -powers fuel to continue raising prices of tickets cd's etc...go to your public library, buy 2nd hand cds/re-sell get some of YOUR money back AND who wants to go to a concert where half the show is a bigbudgetvegaslounge ACT? for 50plus$$...no way...NOT ME.
trent, you rock, stillSTILL thanx for being part of a lonely breed man! you are one of the [very]few ARTISTS i'd actually pay to see live.

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More power to the people. I haven't bought a CD in over 15 years. But I remember when I did...$14.99 got me two good songs and a bunch of crappy ones. From what I hear at a cost to make each cd at $.10.

My idea years ago was Best Buy and these other big wigs should allow people to make their own cd's right in the store. 12-16 songs of my choice, hell yeah I'd pay $10 or so.

Why would I pay $10 for something I can burn for free? Cause half the time the music you "steal" isn't the full version, it's an edited version, or it's not as good as the real thing.

So for all you big wig electronic mogules...Think about it...

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Josh...that idea about burning your own CDs right at the store is ingenious. I can't believe no one's ever thought about doing it before! It would be just like buying them on iTunes (say at .99 a pop) and putting the stuff YOU want to hear on there. I wouldn't be surprised if iTunes doesn't come up with the "make your own CD" feature in the near future. The problem a lot of people face in buying CDs from recording artists is you get 2 or 3 great songs and 10-12 crappy ones and giving PEOPLE, who are ultimately the recording industry's reason for being in the first place, the choice to create their own music and burn it and PAY for it would eliminate a lot of the problem. Well done.

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The sad fact is that more and more people don't want to pay for music anymore. They undervalue it because it is easy to steal. Blaming the record companies is just wrong. There are so many different record companies. Some are mega huge, and have massive amounts of money available. Some are tiny and just barely scraping by. Some people are really trying to offer quality product, but in the current environment, they are having one hell of a time connecting with people who really care about music and value it and the artists who create it, and are actually willing to pay for it. If your attitude when you look over a vast array of cd's at a shop is that there will be two good songs and the rest will be crap, why bother? How is it that so many people have such a hard time finding a cd that is actually good all the way through? They exist you know. Many cd's. Sometimes it takes some patience and repeated listening. Sometimes it takes real listening, not just having music in the background while your talking or cleaning the house or driving. While it's definitely true that there is a lot of rubbish out there, there is still a lot of interesting and different music to be found. You just have to look. People have it made today. You can go to a site like CD Baby and spend the whole day listening to full samples of every song on an album and choose whatever does it for you. Most sites also include user commentary as well as related music and recommendations to check out. Barnes and Noble enables the customer to listen to any song that is on any album that they sell. Now that is amazing. Many other sellers have listening stations. A site like Amazon offers pre listening and offers a huge selection including easy access to used sellers. I mean, how much better could it be? Add to this the growing number of internet radio sites that allow the listener easy access to the artist and song title for later purchase if you find yourself liking it. The argument that all this is shit because cd's cost a lot is ridiculous. The cost of a cd today is roughly about the same ratio of average income per hour X 2 as it was years ago. You can easily find cd's at a price point of $12 or $13 today. Most are discounted heavy. If you wish to go back to a time when records were $2.98, bear in mind that the average music buyer was probably making $1.65 an hour or so. (This being in the 60's as an example.) So how bad is it? Comparing the manufacturing costs of a cd versus its retail price and getting all pissed off is a little weird. There are a lot of people splitting up that pie before any of it reaches the actual creators. Record companies cannot count on an identical margin off every cd they release. Some do well, but the majority sell somewhere around 5000 copies. That ain't exactly a lot. An overwhelming amount of people in the music business, including small labels are barely making it at that. So lighten up everyone. Music is a great value. Better than a DVD you might watch 5 times at the most in its lifetime. A great cd will be played for years, off and on. The investment in music is a far better investment than beer or going out to an expensive restaurant. No one seems to complain with the same bitterness about those kinds of things. All that is consumed fast and is gone. But not music. It's still there to give you another ride. It has value and it's worth it.

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