Idolator

While they were an ecological disaster, I still sort of miss the long boxes CDs were packaged in. You could fit a lot of cover art on one of those suckers, and I still have bits and pieces of ones for The Cure's Boys Don't Cry and The Smiths' Meat Is Murder.

I only wish the RIAA's logic held steadfast for other consumer goods. My VHS VCR I paid $250 for in 1984 would be worth thousands today!

If only wired remote controls were making a comeback...

I'm so tired of the RIAA making themselves out to be the victim. They screw everyone; the artist, the retailers, the consumer, you name it. They've completely ruined the music industry.

The P.R. mistake the labels made back in the '80s was equating CDs with hardware rather than software. 'Cuz, to be fair to them (I can't believe I'm defending them given how angry CD prices make me), hardware prices - computers, CD/DVD players, VCRs, you name it - always come down; content prices (records, CDs, videogames) pretty much never do. The infrastructure to create a box with chips in it gets more efficient; the infrastructure to make products that feed those boxes always gets more byzantine and expensive.

All that said, there's no reason for CDs to be as expensive as they still are other than the labels' overhead. They've priced themselves out of their own market.

What's even more magical and beautiful to consider is that most CDs in Canada are between $17.99-19.99 if they are on sale. You'll be paying in the mid 20s for something that is back catalog. Since this is nowhere near the exchange rate, Canadians are being royally ripped off.

Since I bought my first CD back in the ye ole days of 1983, I can tell you first-hand that the average price for a CD was $16.99. Your standard LP was 9.99 - 12.99.

RIAA is a curse upon the recording industry. Hopefully we will one day be able to dance-dance-dance! on their grave.

I remember the record companies claiming CDs would come down to around the price of a cassette/record back then too. In the mid 80s there was a shortage of pressing plants for CDs. Average price I remember paying was around 16-17. Cassettes were around 9-10.

That price held for like 10 years, which became quite ridiculous after a while because the cost to manufacture cassettes became higher than CDs yet the price was still the same. The justification I heard then was they were charging for quality. CDs were better quality and hence deserved to be priced higher.

CDs not on sale at FYE's are around $20 here currently.

The RIAA and the MPAA are the two trade organizations that we hear about, because their products touch us the most. Not just because we like music and movies, but because we like sharing our experiences with music and movies. Some people make mix CDs (which are technically illegal now, according to the DMCA, I think?). Some people invite friends over to watch a DVD (again, by the law, probably illegal unless they're immediate relatives). Their main goal is to protect profits. And they'll lie about pricing if that suits their purposes.

Other industries have similar organizations to protect their products and profits. Granted, orgs like the National Chicken Council don't sue grandmothers out of their retirement because of something their grandkids did with the "emailing machine."

We can villianize the RIAA and the MPAA all we like, but it's not their fault. Blame the 1998 Congress, who gave the industries carte blanche to threaten and sue consumers in the first place. Find out if your Congressperson voted yes for the DMCA, and if they did, write them a nasty letter expressing your displeasure. Then, send Congressman Rick Boucher of Virginia an encouraging letter in hopes that he might propose limiting legislation to protect consumers, for the third time.

Maybe this time Congress will realize that consumers are their constituency?

I'd like to know why you can often buy a DVD of music videos or a concert for cheaper than the audio CD with the same songs on it.

The MSRP for CDs was $18.99 in 1984 and remained that way for about five years. It started falling after that. Compact discs are far less expensive today than they were, and prices have continually fallen over the years. Big box discounters (Best Buy, Circuit City, Wally World) have consistently sold CDs at a loss for over a decade and for the past several years or more, top sellers have been priced below $10.

Production, manufacturing, and distribution costs have also fallen over the past 25 years. But while this isn't a post meant to defend the RIAA or the music industry's predatory pricing and sketchy business tactics, the industry cannot weather a significant drop in price. Don't believe me? Then go ask your favorite indie label why they aren't wholesaling their product at $3. They can barely make it at two or three times that amount.

Not only were we promised lower CD prices, we were promised CDs were much more durable than tape. I still have CDs from 1984/85 and they ARE durable. The cheap ones now are obviously inferior (and that inferiority is the reason we need to backup our music in different ways).

Taken from the RIAA press release you link to:

"Of course, the most important component of a CD is the artist's effort in developing that music. Artists spend a large portion of their creative energy on writing song lyrics and composing music ..."

In defense of the high cost of CDs, the RIAA implies that artists receive the bulk of the $18 or $19 each of us pays to buy a CD (those of us who still do, that is).

I find this argument disingenious at best and morally bankrupt at worst. Artists receive maybe five cents per song, and then only if the record recoups its cost of production, which includes label overhead, cost of producer (who also has points on the record), studio time, the fancy dinner the label's A&R rep took the band to, etc.

This is why the business model won't last: they lie and lie and lie to get us to believe the big lie.

I like how they act like the price of pressing a CD hasn't ever gone down since its introduction. What a bunch of jerks.