The CD – the musicians 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 someone said just music, amazing you would be right.
If you look at things logically and just sell the music rather than the CD, 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  all of us  charge $12 for an album download?
As a side note- my own little gripe Why do  all of us  buy ebooks that are double the fee of print books and take less time and resolution to create and procure?
So with all what  all of us  know, is it a wonder then why people 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 the majority famous example is Radiohead who said their fans can buy and download their new album at any price they wish.
It averaged out at $5.
I had respect for Radiohead. They done something varying, at least they tried to fix a problem that the music business is not prepared to tackle properly.
Unfortunately they released the album in the shops as well, fleece your fans…nice style Radiohead…[growl]
But instead of thinking, wow, this is great,  all of us  have figured out what people are willing to pay, so lets do something about this. Downloading web sites are still provide ing downloads at over $10.
I went over to CD Baby, wonderful basic web site… the majority downloads $12.
And if you want to buy a CD…$12.
However, I believe that the CD  is going to die.. It has to.
CD Baby furthermore realise that, and have released HostBaby for musician s.
But musicians haven’t realised the fact yet.
And neither have record companies. Assuming that the y did then all of their music would be up for download at $5 a shot ( CD  presses, musician s, shipping- all gone and prices reduce d). It would not put an end to theft fully, but it would heavily dent it.
furthermore 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 ebook industry does).
However it would furthermore dent the record shops, and put people out of work in CD  presses. But unfortunately it’s change. I think people would still buy music CD s, but as time passes- this reduce 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 companies fault that  all of us  haven’t 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 musicians would have found out about downloading and the record companies will downsize. Would they be necessitated in the future? I doubt it, can be to organize large concert 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 web site 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 provide downloads. You will be ahead of that CD  goal by a mile.