Walmart wants cheap CDs

[Joe Siegler]

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/sto...t_wants_10_cds

I've been buying CD's since 1987 when they were all in longboxes. I've always wondered about this, but it's ironic that Walmart is one to demand this. Be interesting to see what happens if they succeed.

NOTE: I know where these conversations usually lead. Be careful where you take this thread, if it heads into a piracy conversation, it could cause the thread to be removed.

[jimbob]

wel, back in the day they promised us lower CD prices once they had thier so called research money back, wel, they made that and much more and prices only kept rising.

so i think its a good sign a store like wallmart is showing enough is enough.

more expensive CD-Prices only stimulate people to look for thier media elsewhere. like though online MP3 downloads, both legal and illegal.

[Joe Siegler]

Originally Posted by jimbob

wel, back in the day they promised us lower CD prices once they had thier so called research money back, wel, they made that and much more and prices only kept rising.

I remember that.

[Sang]

Definitely a good thing for us, consumers, not so much for the people who spent their time making this.

[MegaMustaine]

Originally Posted by Sang

Definitely a good thing for us, consumers, not so much for the people who spent their time making this.

Well the labels take most of the money anyways. I would think that a cut in price would take away from the labels and not the actual artists themselves.

[Damien_Azreal]

Honestly, doesn't effect me any. WM doesn't sell unedited music.... so I don't buy music there.

But for those that do this could be a very good thing.

[peoplessi]

We pay 20,95 euros for a new CD, that is approx 33$USD. I'd say that is pretty cheap.

[Scotty]

Originally Posted by Damien_Azreal

Honestly, doesn't effect me any. WM doesn't sell unedited music.... so I don't buy music there.

...but we're the exception. As long as such a high percentage of Americans shop there, Wal-Mart calls the shots.

Originally Posted by RollingStone article in Joe's post

Wal-Mart is like no traditional record seller. Unlike a typical Tower store, which stocks 60,000 titles, an average Wal-Mart carries about 5,000 CDs. That leaves little room on the shelf for developing artists or independent labels.

Going from 60,000 to 5,000 is a huge sacrifice, and hopefully enough ppl will wake up and stop shopping at Wal-Mart before too much more damage gets done.

Unfortunately, in some markets, Wal-Mart has already put most of their competition out of business.

Hopefully if the industry does lower prices (and I think they should, the fact that music CDs cost nearly as much as movie DVDs speaks for itself) it will lower them for everyone, and not just for Wal-Mart. If the industry were to give only Wal-Mart the price break to keep their overall profits as high as possible, it would only hasten the destruction of what music retailers are left.

[Yenji]

Personally I think that $15 (after taxes) for a CD is a fair price and here a lot of shops seem to sell them for that amount. It will be interesting to see if the music industry will bend to their will or not even if we won't see the "savings" (at least to my understanding of the article)

Personally I'd rather see the prices of DVDs lowered more. $25+ for a regular DVD or $35+ for a Blu-Ray? Forget it.

[Superczar]

At work we get a semi-wholesale price on CD's for our jukeboxes, and more often than not they are still around $12, but we have gotten them as cheap as $6. I really don't see how they are going to get much lower IMHO, but a lot of older titles should definitely be sellable for under $8...

[Little Conqueror]

Originally Posted by peoplessi

We pay 20,95 euros for a new CD, that is approx 33$USD. I'd say that is pretty cheap.

Cheap?!? That's absurd! I wouldn't pay more than $15 for a CD unless it was something I absolutely had to have, and even then, $25 is definitely pushing it. The only bands I'd pay $33 for are the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Pink Floyd, and Black Sabbath, and that's because I've been a fanboy of those bands for years.

[Mountain Man]

Originally Posted by jimbob

wel, back in the day they promised us lower CD prices once they had thier so called research money back, wel, they made that and much more and prices only kept rising.

I was just thinking that. CDs have been overpriced for years. It would nice if Wal-Mart was able to drive the prices down. I might actually be inclined to buy more CDs.

----------

Originally Posted by Damien_Azreal

Honestly, doesn't effect me any. WM doesn't sell unedited music.... so I don't buy music there.

But if Wal-Mart gets their way, other stores will be compelled to lower their prices if they want to stay competitive, so it could benefit everybody.

[Scotty]

Wal-Mart is pushing for a price break in the wholesale price.

If the industry gives that break to everyone, everyone would be able to lower their prices.

If the industry gives that break just to Wal-Mart to shut them up, it will be devastating for everyone else.

[Damien_Azreal]

Originally Posted by Mountain Man

But if Wal-Mart gets their way, other stores will be compelled to lower their prices if they want to stay competitive, so it could benefit everybody.

Yes, it could benefit then. But lets wait and see how this first act goes over.

[Water12356]

Thats why I tend to like Itunes better than most stores. most of the CD's on itunes are 10 dollars. although their new releases are more expensive but 80% of the time its cheaper than the store (especally when u throw the sales tax in)

[Tetsuro]

Only you don't get any physical media from iTunes.

Originally Posted by Little Conqueror

Cheap?!? That's absurd! I wouldn't pay more than $15 for a CD unless it was something I absolutely had to have, and even then, $25 is definitely pushing it. The only bands I'd pay $33 for are the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Pink Floyd, and Black Sabbath, and that's because I've been a fanboy of those bands for years.

I think he was referring to the American average price when he said it's "pretty cheap".

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by peoplessi

We pay 20,95 euros for a new CD, that is approx 33$USD. I'd say that is pretty cheap.

I paid € 27,99 ($43,96) once for a Saxon cd (LE of Inner Sanctum) in a store since buying it online with shipping was just as expensive. Last brandnew cd's I bought where € 14,- and € 18,- for two LE's which is around $22,- / $28,- bucks and that's a fair price for the kinda music I buy.

Then again I might be one of the very few music collectors that are willing to buy different versions of records just to have some special rare tracks on cd or to have a special release of a record, like I bought "Slave of the Dark" by Iced Earth last month from Nuclear Blast. It's a boxset containing everything they ever released and that while I already had all of their records, some of them already twice.

[Sang]

CD's cost around €20 here on average - **** that. Over the past 2 years I've only bought 2 CD's.

[Superczar]

I've done that too Iggy, paid upwards of $40 for say a Japanese release of a cd, just to have bonus tracks or a bonus disc. I paid $30 as I recall for Metallica's One single, and something like $200 for the Iron Maiden 1st Ten Years boxed set...

[Joe Siegler]

Originally Posted by Water12356

Thats why I tend to like Itunes better than most stores. most of the CD's on itunes are 10 dollars. although their new releases are more expensive but 80% of the time its cheaper than the store (especally when u throw the sales tax in)

I still miss vinyl - not for some audio fidelity reason, but because of the physical product. I like iTunes, I use it a lot. I miss tangible records. CD's are OK, but have diminished the overall concept of "album art".

[Water12356]

I understand where your coming from Joe, many music artists now a days dont put much thought into an album cover.

Like compair Ashlee Simpson's Upcoming album cover Here
with The Beatles Sgt Pepper, or Black Sabbath's debut album cover. Many people dont put much thought into making their album look good and meaningful anymore.

But its one of the reason's why people liked buying LP's and EP's back in the day. Not only did they have the music, they had something to look at too. But sadly I think those days are fading away.

[Mountain Man]

Originally Posted by Water12356

Like compair Ashlee Simpson's Upcoming album cover Here
with The Beatles Sgt Pepper, or Black Sabbath's debut album cover. Many people dont put much thought into making their album look good and meaningful anymore.

Ashlee Simpson is a made-to-order pop-tart. Who would expect her albums to have anything but generic cover art?

My main problem with iTunes is that I can make superior music files myself by ripping a CD. So, yeah, iTunes can be a bit cheaper, but the quality is also inferior. Not to mention when I rip the music myself, I can use it without restriction.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

I'd consider buying CD's if most albums had more than 2 decent songs on them. As it is right now most, not all, albums are filled with junk.

[avatar_58]

Originally Posted by Mountain Man

My main problem with iTunes is that I can make superior music files myself by ripping a CD. So, yeah, iTunes can be a bit cheaper, but the quality is also inferior. Not to mention when I rip the music myself, I can use it without restriction.

It's funny how iTunes could theoretically fix both of those flaws and get more sales, but would rather ignore complaints and wonder why piracy is still huge.

Nothing beats buying the CD in stores and ripping the songs yourself at the highest quality. Literally no loss (thats audible to most ears). You skip the hassle and low quality of itunes and don't have to resort to piracy.

However as Walmart says - it's too damn pricy. Technically a physical CD should not cost more than a few bucks over the online deal. Look at steam - it doesn't cost *any* different even with the lost media. So what makes CDs so damned important that they get to cost way more than their itunes counterparts?

[Water12356]

MM I just went to CDnow.com and picked out a random CD that was coming out soon. lol I know her intelegence is compairable to a pop tart. And the quality of Itunes isnt that horrid.

[Mountain Man]

Originally Posted by Water12356

And the quality of Itunes isnt that horrid.

I didn't say it was horrid, I just said that I can get superior sound quality ripping a CD myself and compressing it with "lame --preset standard", and I can put it on any player I want.

[Kevin Wolff]

Apparently nobody has noticed that this article is from October 12, 2004.

Slashdot fell for this too. Is that where you got it, Joe?

In other words, Wal-Mart whined about this over three years ago, and I don't know of anything changing.

[John]

Wal-Mart Wants $10 CDs
Biggest U.S. record retailer battles record labels over prices
WARREN COHEN

Posted Oct 12, 2004 12:00 AM

Haha!

[Mountain Man]

[MegaMustaine]

Originally Posted by Water12356

I understand where your coming from Joe, many music artists now a days dont put much thought into an album cover.

Like compair Ashlee Simpson's Upcoming album cover Here

I think the issue is the music you are looking at. Of course someone like Ashlee Simpson or Britney Spears isn't going to have thought out cover art, but there are many "real" musicians that do.

[Water12356]

Originally Posted by Mountain Man

I will give you two...

[Phayzon]

Originally Posted by peoplessi

We pay 20,95 euros for a new CD, that is approx 33$USD. I'd say that is pretty cheap.

The most expensive CD I have ever purchased was $23US, with all my other CDs averaging about $17 or $18US. $33US for a CD is absolutely insane. At that rate I could have either 2 CDs or a shiny new PC, X360 or Wii game.

[Mountain Man]

Originally Posted by Phayzon

The most expensive CD I have ever purchased was $23US, with all my other CDs averaging about $17 or $18US.

That's too expensive for me. I'd say I average about $12 a CD since I usually wait for a sale, or I buy older music which is always cheaper than the new stuff.

[Joe Siegler]

Originally Posted by Kevin Wolff

Apparently nobody has noticed that this article is from October 12, 2004.

Slashdot fell for this too. Is that where you got it, Joe?

That would be correct.

D'oh

[Bushido]

2004 or not I'm gonna throw my opinion in the mix. I still buy vinyl (for obvious reasons) and it still beats any CD or itunes download. On any given single I get the acapella, instrumental, explicit/radio versions, and various remix's...


...I haven't bought a CD in many years...

[peoplessi]

You see, and people wonder why some prefer downloading 33$US is way beyond too much. I myself, have bought some what 400+ CD's, but mostly on bargain/high discount or so on. Rarely do I buy them with fullprice. I prefer to have the physical product, than just the music in digital form. It's an experience, you can't get that with non-physical digital download.

[avatar_58]

Originally Posted by Kevin Wolff

Apparently nobody has noticed that this article is from October 12, 2004.

Slashdot fell for this too. Is that where you got it, Joe?

In other words, Wal-Mart whined about this over three years ago, and I don't know of anything changing.

I have an excuse - I only read the title and Joe's comments. (This is seriously hilariously bad)

Joe - you could have said "This was a test, clearly you all cannot read"

[Joe Siegler]

Yeah, I know, but there was no particular reason to lie.

[Usurper]

I see cheap classic cd's at Walmart all the time lately, so I can assume this had an effect. The problem is that it's a rack of 3 pop cds, 3 metal cds, 3 80s cds, etc. The price is fine, but the selection blows.

I was somewhat shocked to see a Nightwish cd in Walmart recently, though.

Semi-related: anyone noticing the music selection at their local Borders taking a major turn for the worse? Or is it just mine?

[Joe Siegler]

Semi-related: anyone noticing the music selection at their local Borders taking a major turn for the worse? Or is it just mine?

My wife works for Borders. I know something about that. The entire company is in the shitter. Less than $12 months ago, their stock value was at 25 dollars a share. Last week it dropped to just about $5. It's now over $6, but the company in general is hurting - a lot.