Re: Love-Hounds Digest

[J. Peter Alfke <alfke@csvax.caltech.edu>]

seismo!nbs-amrf!oskard sez:
>	I was just listening to a local radio talk show on my way home last
>night when I heard somebody (supposedly an authority of some sort on the
>recording industry) saying that it only costs $2 more to produce a CD than an
>album.  Meanwhile, they're selling them at twice the price!  
>ASSHOLE BUSINESSMEN!

There's a reasonable explanation for this.  It costs about $4 to produce a
boxed and packaged CD.  It costs, I would presume, about $2 for a vinyl
record.  Multiply by about 4 or so to get list price, and you can see why
they sell for twice the price.
New issue of Billboard says one pressing plant has just lowered its cost
to produce an unpackaged disc to $1.79 in bulk quantities, as compared to
the previous lowest cost of about $2.30.  The other pressing-plant people
are aghast and acknowlege they may have to change their pricing, too.
Yay!  Moreover, a new method of CD mastering (using a piezoelectric-
controlled stylus instead of photoetching) promises to be far far cheaper
than the old method.  This is a one-time cost to produce the master, but
that cost figures heavily in the total cost per disc.  So prices should
go even lower.
With any luck this will get passed to the consumer and we may start seeing
cheaper CDs soon.  (I also hear the supply is catching up with demand (in
fact one of the major labels has some overstocked discs they're selling
for $7.99 list (don't get excited, they're all shit)) so prices should be
going down somewhat over the year.)

So much for that.  Yes, of course my Temptations/Bush of Ghosts thing
ended in a joke.  I'm not that dumb, guys.  Really.

						--Me again
"anyTHING goes up, anyTHING goes down,
 fish, bananas, old pajamas ..."