Record Industry & OFT

QbIx · **Posted:** Fri Jul 25, 2003 9:14 am

I noticed that in a previous post that most people think CD's are overpriced and I presume most of the general public also agree. Considering the general opinion how come no one has complained to the Office of Fair Trading, can't they fine them or something for artifically keeping their prices and generally ripping off the consumer. Also the price of producing Cd's has dropped to vitually nothing so how come we don't see the savings. Evil or Very Mad

Stream · **Posted:** Fri Jul 25, 2003 9:52 am

well...this seems to be a general "problem" in all countries....so how to reverse the rising prices on a worldwide basis?

by not buying cd's?
then they will probably complain about lower sales...and increase prices to make up for it....

I think the main problem for high prices are the distributors and chain-stores. In the past few years the competition is no longer present because there are only 1 or a few companies importing cd's from the various labels into the country...and the stores HAVE to buy from them...since some agreement say they can't import themselves. This totally destroys the free market and prices increase to make sure the middle-men get a big portion of the cake! The artist in one end and the local store in the other end only gets a few percent of the total Sad

For example where I live...in a town with about 70000 inhabitants (pretty large city in Norwegian scale)...there where 4-5 record stores when I moved here 4 years ago. Now there are 2 left. Both of them belong to the large chain "Free-record-shop". They stock the same records and have the same (high!) prices.
Those other local record-shops are gone...for 2 reasons:
1. they can't survive on selling imports only, since it's a limited market
2. they can't compete on price on the popular top 20 records since the distributors gives the large chains huge discounts....in the end the local records store's in-price is higher than the big chain's out-price (especially for top 10 cd's that are always on sale).

To me it seems the current music-market has been destroyed. Some kind of a revolution is needed and I think the solution is online music. If iTunes Music Store becomes a success (as it seems to become) I'm sure many others will adapt this idea. If all stores like this can offer music from all major record-companies they will surely become popular...and the price-competition between the stores will start. If the same companies are behind both online (downloadable) sales and physical sales they might see that they have to lower prices for the physical products to sell them at all...or we can see the opposite happening, that cd's become exclusive and something only bought by the greatest music-lovers. Leaving the average listener to only download his/her music through the online stores...

Well, that's my 2 cents...

Viceroy · **Posted:** Fri Jul 25, 2003 4:25 pm

The problem with online retailers is that you end up spending loads of money on shipping...
I don't think you can complain about prices unless you have proof of a monopoly. Because of free trade, they can charge whatever they want- who's going to stop them?

davehart · **Posted:** Sat Jul 26, 2003 12:00 am

CD's online are not really that expensive in my view. About £10-£15 for most cd compilations and labums. As with viceroy, especially with trance release being released in different countries its the shipping that pumps the total price up. High street prices are pretty high tho.

QbIx · **Posted:** Sat Jul 26, 2003 3:42 pm

The problem is that not everyone has a credit card and so can't gain any saving by buying online, what would be a good idea if there was like a top up card like pay as you go mobile phones perhaps it would take off if the big online stores adopted it. I recently went into my local HMV and noticed Rank 1 - Symsonic album but I refused to pay £20 for it. I know there's the idea for paying for quality releases but I can't help but feel Im been ripped off if I made the purchase.

Stream · **Posted:** Sat Jul 26, 2003 6:03 pm

You're right about the credit card problem....far from everyone got one, especially those under 18....didn't think about that at all (guess I've gotten too old Razz

)

There are other payment methods coming making it possible to pay directly from your bank account, or through a cash-card (with limited funds on it)...but it will still take a few years until the majority of online stores accepts such payments.
The drawback is that such payments are pretty expencive at the moment...since you have to pay a fee per transaction that is a lot higher than the usual VISA fee Sad

davehart · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2003 2:58 am

QbIx · **Posted:** Tue Jul 29, 2003 2:37 am

It was an import and it did come with a bonus DVD so I had to admit I was tempted Rolling Eyes

Viceroy · **Posted:** Tue Jul 29, 2003 5:11 pm

Vincent de Moor - Moor, his artist album, was on amazon.ca for $63.99 - that's a ridiculous price! http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005261W/702-5884815-2794457
That's about 28 UK pounds. Comps here, even online, are not cheap at all. I recently spent nearly $50 (UK22 pounds) on the Gatecrasher Resident Transmission. Good single disc comps (ex. Tiesto's Magik series) run for about $25 (UK11) which I don't mind as much.
And amazon is about the only Canadian online shop that sells trance at all, and even then they don't stock a big selection of it. If I bought it in the US or UK, the shipping costs would be astonomical!

davehart · **Posted:** Tue Jul 29, 2003 11:55 pm

Jesus, that is just a tad expensive. That nearly beats the £25 Amazon are charging for 'The Best of: ferry Corsten'. Imports from USA over here sometimes work out best, even with shipping & handling. I've been ording a lot from USA and a few from some europeon based stores and saving a good £ or two. The only downside is it takes around 11-20 days for delivery, but a good CD is worth the wait.

QbIx · **Posted:** Wed Jul 30, 2003 9:26 am

I read an intresting artical what do you think ?

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/articles/auto/07292003a.php

Viceroy · **Posted:** Wed Jul 30, 2003 3:27 pm

Article was a bit biased I must say... But I can see where they're coming from. I think people would download less and buy more CDs if they were only cheaper.
Speaking of which, you spend $22 or 11 pounds on a CD - where does all the money go? Like, it can't take many resources to make the thing... Anybody got insight into this?

Viceroy · **Posted:** Sat Aug 30, 2003 5:49 am

Stream · **Posted:** Sat Aug 30, 2003 5:53 am

I guess they sell a couple at those ridiculously high prices....but they would sell a whole lot more if they were lowered by just a few pounds...at least below the 20 mark...

davehart · **Posted:** Sat Aug 30, 2003 10:03 pm

aAye, £15 is the limit I'd spend on a CD, allthough I made one exception for Picotto's "The Album" because the 3cd edition was £18. Even for an import tilte the price for that ferry CD is very very high. Some case, i order cd's from overseas shops because even when adding the shipping it still works out cheaper that £££.