Finally, one record company is getting it. Universal is lowering its suggested retail price for CDs to $12.98. The change is said to be in order to better compete with online downloads. They’re going to have to do better than $12.98. When CDs first came out and became mainstream, that’s basically what the retail price was.
With all the technological advancements and the proliferation of compact discs, the retail price should be $7.50 to $8.00 in my opinion. Maybe at that price, people will start buying them again.
The problem with lowering the price that far is that while the cost of actually printing the CDs has come down, the other costs associated have gone up. Specifically, the salaries of the people involved have gone way up, and the cost of promotion has gone up. Therefore, in order to achieve their break-even point on a CD, the companies need to charge the ever increasing prices that they are. Universal is taking the gamble that the lower prices will mean higher sales, but those higher sales won’t necessarily result in higher profits, because their break-even point is now higher. I hope it works out for them. CD prices have gotten prohibitively high.
I hope it works out for them, too… because I never buy music anymore. Too bloody expensive. But $12-3 dollars I might be able to handle.
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