Darwin wrote:
] ] Now start adding some "VA" that can not be pirated. Ideas
] off
] ] the top of my head... random drawings for concert tix, back
] ] stage passes, t-shirts and other swag, etc...
]
] I bet reducing the after-tax price of an audio CD to $10 or
] $12 is enough of a value-add for most people..
]
] =darwin

The argument for the reduction in sales for recorded music over the past several always leaves me appalled. Quite apart from the recession, no one ever seems to bring up the astonishing variety of competeing entertainment/lifestyle items that exist now and the cost to the average consumer. Back in some mystical "Golden Age" of record sales, LPs cost $3.99 and the hourly minimum wage was somewhat the same (in California). Currently, your same teen min wage consumer also has a cell phone bill, internet access bill, cable TV bill, movies that cost $8.00 to see in the theater, $5 movie and game rentals, online gaming subscriptions and all the hardware costs for the devices. It it astonishing to me that anyone young is ponying up the $17 bucks it costs to buy a new CD, and that is a big chunk of the buying market (certainly not all of it but the ones the industry is pointing the finger at). Sell the songs online for 99 cents, include an encrypted special picture from the artist and be happy that you got the dough at all.

The play "Other People's Money" in the 80's had some wonderful lines about the last buggywhip maker in the US. It was the very best company, the one that outlasted everyone else, made the best damn whips around but you know what? It made buggywhips.

When markets and technologies change, they change. Adapt or die.

RE: 'Anger' leads Metallica to the Internet