Live Music Blog

The CD – the artists dream.

I’ve always wondered about this one. If I take out a CD, took away its plastic packaging, took away the paper and actually took away the CD  what do I have?

If a person said just music, wonderful you would be right.

If you look at things wisely and just sell the music rather than the compact disc, you would reduce the amount of time spent to reproduce the thing, reduce the hours and wages that take to create one, reduce the amount of resources on shipping/ storage/ marketing/ selling to shops.

So the biggest wonder of my time at present is this:

Why do we charge $12 for an album download?

As a side note- my own little gripe Why do all of us buy electronic books that are double the cost of print books and take less time and endeavor to create and procure?

So with all what we know, is it a wonder then why individuals pirate stuff (especially when CDs degrade/ scratch over time)?

I think the decent folk out there will buy something for what they thought the album is worth. The most famous example is Radiohead who said their fans could buy and download their new album at any price they wish.

It averaged out at $5.

I had respect for Radiohead. They done something different, at least they tried to fix a problem that the music industry isn’t prepared to tackle properly.

Unfortunately they released the album in the shops as well, fleece your audiences…nice style Radiohead…[growl]

But instead of thinking, wow, this is great, we have figured out what people are willing to pay, so lets do something about this. Downloading websites are still offer ing downloads at over $10.

I went over to compact disc Baby, nice basic website... most downloads $12.

And if you want to buy a CD…$12.

However, I believe that the compact disc  is going to die.. It has to.

compact disc Baby also realise that, and have released HostBaby for performers.

But artists have not realised the fact yet.

And neither have record companies. Assuming that they did then all of their music would be up for download at $5 a shot ( CD  presses, performers, shipping- all gone and prices reduce d). It would not put an end to stealing fully, but it would heavily dent it.

likewise add something else to the download- a bonus pdf, a picture performance, a discount for other downloads, a free private members web site ( like the e-book industry does).

Nonetheless it would additionally dent the record shops, and put people out of work in CD  presses. But unfortunately it’s vary. I think people would still buy music CD s, but as time passes- this decrease s.

On the other hand- how cool would it be to go into a record shop with a flash drive and download an album?

However change is needed.

And it’s the record organizations fault that all of us have not done anything about this mess yet. Unfortunately they will panic and fully try downloads in the future, but by then it will be too late. Virtually all performers would have found out about downloading and the record organizations will downsize. Would they be needed in the future? I doubt it, could be to organize large shows and tours…but why else would you need one?

Bleak picture, but true…we live in a “now” society that utilises downloads. Only a few years ago all of us never had any real film footage website s. A few years ago there has been no iTunes. A few years ago there has been no Blogs or Podcasts.

Offer CDs and downloads. But when the time comes, kill the CD  and just offer downloads. You’ll be ahead of that CD  goal by a mile.