Price of Music Killing The Industry?

[filthyrich]

Couple points:

--The "limited amount of vinyl pressing plants" argument is probably spot-on. There's easily 10 times as many records being pressed as there were even 5 years ago, but the number of plants that can press vinyl hasn't increased. And that number is a far cry from the heyday of the 60s/70s... The majority started going under in the 90s and that trend continued well into the 2000s.

Plants might be charging more for the same service and/or labels are increasing their prices knowing their runs will be lower (and thus more expensive).

 

--Some of it is major-label greed but that doesn't explain all of it. Someone brought up Imagine Dragons... Well, their record (single LP) retails for $16.99. Then a record like Lorde (which I believe is also a single?) retails for double that. Can't quite figure that one out....

 

--CD prices only started dropping to $10 or less when big-box retailers like Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Target got heavily into the music biz. They were commonly called "loss leaders" since those stores would lose money selling a CD for $7 (cost was $8.50) but it got traffic into the store... and when that traffic bought a refrigerator, computer, or stereo system, major profits were generated. (More than enough to make up for losing $1 apiece on a CD.) Obviously, stand-alone record stores couldn't compete with these prices as they didn't sell any big-ticket items like appliances, etc. They sold music. Period. 

Now that most of these record stores have gone under and the big-box retailers have given up on CDs altogether, you're seeing CD prices creep back up to normal profit margins.

 

--Springsteen vinyl for $20 at K-Mart, huh? Maybe the days of "loss leaders" aren't 100% over yet! (Just for fun, I checked to see Kmart's price on that new Lorde vinyl. Surprise! They don't carry it.)

[nivek87]

Couple points:

--Springsteen vinyl for $20 at K-Mart, huh? Maybe the days of "loss leaders" aren't 100% over yet! (Just for fun, I checked to see Kmart's price on that new Lorde vinyl. Surprise! They don't carry it.)

 

They carry Lorde - Pure Heroine, however its backordered.  It is priced at 22.99 though.

 

http://entertainment.kmart.com/lorde-pure-heroine/602537539857

[weinerdog]

why does everyone love amazon so much? (not saying you are one), but even UO has Lorde for 12 bucks less.

Everyone I know that loves them has Amazon prime(and swears it's so great), so it's convenient and quick to order anything and get 2 day shipping. If I thought I'd use their video service I'd probably sign up too.