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Grex > Music2 > #154: Schoolkids II, and Music Retailing |  |
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| 25 new of 247 responses total. |
otaking
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response 125 of 247:
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Sep 29 16:52 UTC 1999 |
Even BMG hasn't begun to charge $18 for CDs. Then again, you have to pay S&H
through them.
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omni
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response 126 of 247:
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Sep 29 18:49 UTC 1999 |
But if you only catch the sales, you can save money.
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mcnally
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response 127 of 247:
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Sep 29 19:29 UTC 1999 |
that's assuming you like their selection, don't mind waiting for the
sales, etc., basically just to pay a less-unreasonable-than-normal price..
of course you also have to worry about whether the artist (presumably
the only other party to the transaction that you care about) is making
any money off the record-club sale or whether they're actually being
*charged* for it by the record company as some sort of "promotional expense"
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otaking
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response 128 of 247:
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Sep 29 20:04 UTC 1999 |
The problem with BMG is their relative lack of selection. I find a lot of
mainstream stuff that I don't mind picking up, but most of the stuff I like
isn't available since they only carry major labels. In some cases, like Kate
Bush, you're lucky if they carry a couple of albums beyond a greatest hits
CD. If only there was a CD club that sold a lot of world, techno, goth,
industrial, ambient...
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lumen
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response 129 of 247:
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Sep 29 22:28 UTC 1999 |
no kidding. But unfortunately, that still seems to be somewhat of a
cult market, or an audience that is significantly smaller than the
mainstream.
Hey, has anyone considered buying wholesale? I subscribe to _Sound and
Vision_ and I keep seeing ads for a wholesale company that is *not* BMG
or Columbia House.
the only other way to find something like that is to start your own CD
club, somehow.. you'd have to be an entrepeneur, then..
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scott
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response 130 of 247:
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Sep 29 23:37 UTC 1999 |
$17.99 CDs? Gee, I guess the industry must really want MP3's to succeed. ;)
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mcnally
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response 131 of 247:
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Sep 30 00:13 UTC 1999 |
No kidding.. As far as I can tell the industry is doing everything it
can to alienate music buyers -- dropping any older artists who aren't
superstars, spending very little money and effort on developing new
artists and new sounds, gouging every last penny they can, etc..
(but then you've all heard me bitch about these things before..)
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dbratman
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response 132 of 247:
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Sep 30 22:16 UTC 1999 |
What, if anything, has taken the place of the 45 rpm single of the vinyl
era? I see things called "CD singles" for sale, but they're far too
expensive, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of the cost of a
full-length CD, for me to imagine buying a fistful casually the way kids
used to buy 45s in my day.
Or is my sense of price off, and CD singles really do move as fast and
casually as 45s used to?
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orinoco
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response 133 of 247:
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Sep 30 22:21 UTC 1999 |
Many of the ridiculously-priced CD singles you see have more music on them
than a 45 single. The usual routine seems to be one or two album tracks, and
a few 'not available anywhere else' B-sides.
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mcnally
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response 134 of 247:
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Sep 30 22:52 UTC 1999 |
Yeah, there're basically two kinds of "CD singles" --
kind A, which sells for $5.99 - $7.99 usually has a popular song
and several other tracks, possibly "bonus remixes" or otherwise
unreleased songs.
kind B, which is far less common, sells for $2.99 or $3.99 and
usually has a huge hit song plus one B-side, just like the 45rpm
singles used to..
Neither kind really replaces the old 45rpm single, though..
Many artists don't release singles at all and of those who do, the
singles usually come out substantially after the album release,
sometimes not until well after the song has faded from the hit parade..
On the whole, record companies would much rather sell you a whole
album's worth of songs..
Perhaps "singles" will come back in the era of downloadable digital
music. One of the factors working against them at the moment is that
it costs just as much to produce a CD-single as it does to produce a
full-length CD (more, actually, on a per-disc basis, since you'll sell
far fewer of them but still have to pay for packaging, design, etc..)
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lumen
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response 135 of 247:
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Sep 30 23:57 UTC 1999 |
resp:134 As long as DJs are in demand, especially in making these
bonus mixes, I really don't see the demise of the CD single coming
quickly.
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eeyore
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response 136 of 247:
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Oct 7 02:26 UTC 1999 |
Actually, I adore the singles. :)
When I was up in Toronto, the price of cd's was incredible....a basic cd would
be $15....Canadian. Tower had Sarah McLachlan's Mirrorball on sale for
$10.99...canadian. I saw others on sale for @8.99 or $9.99.....and since I
bought 100 Canadian dollars for only 74 American.....man oh man were the
prices nice!!!! :)
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otaking
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response 137 of 247:
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Oct 7 02:42 UTC 1999 |
I need to shop in Canada more often. A collection of Shania Twain videos sells
for CAN$8. Tower charges US$10.
Imagine what used CDs would cost in Windsor...
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orinoco
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response 138 of 247:
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Oct 7 03:37 UTC 1999 |
<drools> All the more reason my friend Eric needs to go to Montreal and let
me visit him there. :)
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mcnally
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response 139 of 247:
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Oct 7 04:18 UTC 1999 |
Wow! Record prices have come down since the last time I shopped in
Canada. Prices were CDN$18-20 per disc at that time and the Canadian
dollar was doing significantly better against the American dollar.
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otaking
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response 140 of 247:
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Oct 7 16:15 UTC 1999 |
Even if CDs were CDN$18, it would still be cheaper than the US$18 that Tower
charges. Sure, you still have to consider the extra GST & PST, but it would
still be worth it in the long run.
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eeyore
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response 141 of 247:
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Oct 7 18:20 UTC 1999 |
Plus, if you have the patience to wait in line at the border, you can get the
GST back. :)
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otaking
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response 142 of 247:
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Oct 7 19:53 UTC 1999 |
That's true. You better make sure to save all of your receipts and ensure that
they all have the date and location of where you bought the stuff. You have
to prove that you bought it in Canada.
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orinoco
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response 143 of 247:
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Oct 7 20:40 UTC 1999 |
We do that every year on the way back from Canada, but that's because if
you're living there for three weeks the expenses add up. The GST saving on
a few CDs would almost not be worth the effort.
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otaking
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response 144 of 247:
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Oct 8 03:26 UTC 1999 |
Yeah, but if I made the trip, I'd want it to be worthwhile, considering the
cost of the drive and border crossings. I'd buy a whole stack of CDs or books.
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mcnally
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response 145 of 247:
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Oct 8 05:14 UTC 1999 |
Buy enough, though, and you run into the limits of your duty exemption..
Anyway, my thinking was that CD prices in Canada would have kept pace
with, or risen faster than, U.S. prices.. Apparently they've gone from
being somewhat higher to quite a bit lower..
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otaking
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response 146 of 247:
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Oct 8 15:09 UTC 1999 |
It's not like I plan to buy $300 worth of CDs. It would be nice, but I can't
afford that.
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dbratman
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response 147 of 247:
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Oct 13 18:17 UTC 1999 |
Be thankful you're not buying your CDs in the UK. Back in 1992 I saw a
stack of American rock imports at the Piccadilly Circus outlet of Tower
for 20 _pounds_ a crack. I could have brought over a stack and sold
them to friends at less than that, and still made myself a tidy profit.
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otaking
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response 148 of 247:
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Oct 13 19:42 UTC 1999 |
I found some really good CDs in the London Tower store when I went. They had
a decent bargain bin that was worth raiding. I came away with a Ryuichi
Sakamoto CD single and a limited edition Peel Sessions of Siouxie and the
Banshees for 2 pounds. The regular CDs cost 15 pounds, or roughly $24. Too
much for me.
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orinoco
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response 149 of 247:
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Oct 13 21:32 UTC 1999 |
<nods> British CD prices are ridiculous. I always assumed that 'imports'
(usually from Europe) are so high-priced here because prices are so high in
Europe, but #147 makes it sound like there's a worse markup going across the
Atlantic the other direction. Hmm...
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