From Jon Drukman Sent Wed, May 20th 1998, 22:57
Rjyan C Kidwell wrote: > hate to keep this thread alive, but it surprises me that this is the only > guy here speaking up for the "punk" ethic, save maybe Jon Drukman. hi there! > CDs can cost less than $.80 a piece to produce. Even with the additional > costs of art production, (films, printing, whatever) paying the > artists/photographers involved in the art production, mastering and all, > there is no way in hell these CDs we're buying cost more than 5$. > Production prices for CDs have dropped nicely over the last five years. > So why do prices go up? the "i can't afford it" argument is the WORST argument for pirating music. you might as well advocating stealing cars since they cost a lot. > Even IDM seemingly "DIY" labels like Skam and Music Aus Strom charge the > "standard" 10$-12$ for 12", 16-20$ for CDs. What the hell? I talked to > PJ at Modern Music about this and he brought up and interesting and > unfortunate aspect of this problem: say I was to start a label and charge > 6$ppd for my LPs. He could still charge 12$ for them at his store > because that's what the market will pay. I think there needs to be more > awareness about just how absurd these CD prices are. for imports it's just the mechanics of getting them to your house... it costs a lot and there are many people along the way who want to get paid for their time. that's why i think distributing music over the net has a great future. eliminate those greedy middlemen. someday some clever person will figure out how to make it worthwhile. unfortunately i fear it will be a major label exec who wants a pay-for-play thing like the up-and-coming techno-horror that is divx. not directly related but entertaining thoughts about copyright: http://www.negativland.com/intprop.html relevant quote: home taping is killing the music industry. keep up the good work! -- Jon Drukman xxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Plan: Eat right, exercise regularly, die anyway.