Music Industry tries *gasp* price cuts

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-09-03 11:44pm

After 3 years of failing to take a fucking hint, Universal Music Group is finally going to slash CD prices.

Teh Link

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-09-03 11:56pm

Yay! Now CDs will be the price they are now!

GrandMasterTerwynn · Post by **GrandMasterTerwynn** » 2003-09-04 12:06am

Durran Korr wrote:After 3 years of failing to take a fucking hint, Universal Music Group is finally going to slash CD prices.

Big-ass link.

Oh big fat hairy deal. I already pay that much for CDs at Best Buy.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-09-04 12:07am

Which means that Best Buy may start selling for a couple bucks under the suggested price, hopefully.

EmperorMing · Post by **EmperorMing** » 2003-09-04 01:32am

About time something like this started to happen...

Of course, I still think they should lower thrices by another buck...

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-09-04 01:50am

Durran Korr wrote:Which means that Best Buy may start selling for a couple bucks under the suggested price, hopefully.

So you're suggesting that BB might start selling new releases for about $10?

Cool. That is, it would be if there was anything worth buying.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-09-04 02:15am

The whole mechanism is eventually going to die.

The music companies are nothing but a MIDDLEMAN between the artist and the consumer, and as such, will eventually be cut out of the marketplace if technology and market forces are allowed to operate without interference. Their entire existence is dependent upon a particular model of distribution, and they are fighting tooth and nail to preserve that model even if it no longer makes sense.

EmperorMing · Post by **EmperorMing** » 2003-09-04 02:50am

Darth Wong wrote:The whole mechanism is eventually going to die.

The music companies are nothing but a MIDDLEMAN between the artist and the consumer, and as such, will eventually be cut out of the marketplace if technology and market forces are allowed to operate without interference. Their entire existence is dependent upon a particular model of distribution, and they are fighting tooth and nail to preserve that model even if it no longer makes sense.

Exactly. Artists could technically do such a thing now, with technoliogy the way it is.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-09-04 11:47am

Durran Korr wrote:Which means that Best Buy may start selling for a couple bucks under the suggested price, hopefully.

I wonder what prices will be charged on the internet though. Considering that MSRP seems to work of the principle of considering B&M costs that internet retailers don't have.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2003-09-04 01:21pm

I don't mean this to sound like propaganda, but I've been thinking something...

Let's say the RIAA does get theirs in a big way and the music industry is turned into a gaggle of artists all releasing their MP3s out on the Internet for 50 cents a song or something along those lines. What happens now that there's no Controlling Corporate Monster essentially censoring out whatever they don't agree with and/or what doesn't earn them anything less than obscenely huge piles of money? It's a foregone conclusion that the RIAA is soon to be dead, buried, and lamented on in the same sentence as the Buggy-Whip factories, so I'm interested in what would happen if music's Cancer were to be cut out to wither and die. My thoughts: People's tastes will start to become more diversified, the music industry will (obviously) emerge from its stagnation all the better since its focus will be on the Artists and the people. And that's essentially what it'll be: the artists and the people. No more cancerous, balding, greedy middleman. Free the Music Industry.

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2003-09-04 02:24pm

EmperorMing wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:The whole mechanism is eventually going to die.

The music companies are nothing but a MIDDLEMAN between the artist and the consumer, and as such, will eventually be cut out of the marketplace if technology and market forces are allowed to operate without interference. Their entire existence is dependent upon a particular model of distribution, and they are fighting tooth and nail to preserve that model even if it no longer makes sense.
Exactly. Artists could technically do such a thing now, with technoliogy the way it is.

Well, aren't there some artists who own their own record companies? (I think Paul McCartney is the most notable of these, but there are others)

Pablo Sanchez · Post by **Pablo Sanchez** » 2003-09-04 03:06pm

Darth Wong wrote:The music companies are nothing but a MIDDLEMAN between the artist and the consumer, and as such, will eventually be cut out of the marketplace if technology and market forces are allowed to operate without interference. Their entire existence is dependent upon a particular model of distribution, and they are fighting tooth and nail to preserve that model even if it no longer makes sense.

I hadn't thought of it that way, but when it's pointed out it makes a lot of sense. As the communications revolution proceeds a lot of businesses will disappear because the entire mechanism of distribution has moved beyond them and they become obsolete. The advancement of the technology also explains why the RIAA is getting more and more desperate; they could take care of Napster without too much difficulty because it had a body to attack, but innovation created the P2P networks which are too elusive to be touched.

Spanky the Dolphin wrote:So you're suggesting that BB might start selling new releases for about $10?

Cool. That is, it would be if there was anything worth buying.

I mostly agree, but there are a few solid bands around today. I think The White Stripes are great.

EDIT:
First, dress your links. I did it for you, but in the future remember that very long links are annoying and that dressing them is easy and FUN!

Second, this is the gaming and computers forum. Now, I have been wrong about these things in the past, but I'm somewhat sure that this is News and Politics or at least Off-Topic. So I'm going to move it to NaP.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-09-04 03:08pm

When I first saw the title I was expecting a joke about how they failed because stores rounded the fraction of a penny back up.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-09-04 03:53pm

I wonder what would happen if the RIAA decided to buy MTV or create its own music tv channel and tell people what to buy.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-09-04 03:55pm

neoolong wrote:I wonder what would happen if the RIAA decided to buy MTV or create its own music tv channel and tell people what to buy.

You mean they don't already with MTV? Because I don't remember seeing a video not heavily promoted by the record companies on. No independent or small label bands. They might not be owned by the RIAA but they might as well be.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-09-04 03:59pm

Stormbringer wrote:
neoolong wrote:I wonder what would happen if the RIAA decided to buy MTV or create its own music tv channel and tell people what to buy.
You mean they don't already with MTV? Because I don't remember seeing a video not heavily promoted by the record companies on. No independent or small label bands. They might not be owned by the RIAA but they might as well be.

True, but I mean really blatantly.

zombie84 · Post by **zombie84** » 2003-09-04 05:12pm

Fuck the RIAA and fuck all the record labels. They're all leeches and they all screw the artists. The name of the game is money and not music--art becomes worthless when its reduced to a commondity. Record lables exist to profit off of artists and consumers.

I think its an exciting time for music; we're witnessing the death of the record industry, just as its becoming as big as it'll ever be. Its like a star reaching critical mass before burning out.

But i dont think that the switch to p2p/internet is going to change much--pop music will still be culture-influencing commerical-driven, and musicians are always going to need promoters, thus necessitating the need for record labels. MTV is still going to be around to hype up shitty pop music and radio is still going to be a sesspool of pre-programmed shit, and the politics of the music biz are still going to create the atmosphere of commericialism that we have today. MP3 distribution sites will begin to replace and exist alongside music stores, but it'll still be the record labels that control most of that because the most popular artists will still be the ones that exist on the labels.
What the explosion of p2p/internet filesharing will do is give access to types of music that remained totally obscure and take power away from the record label monopoly. This is already starting to happen but i think it will only go so far.

The real obstacle for most people is radio--p2p filesharing is great for people that are already into underground music but it does little for people that only listen to radio and are only interested in whats popular. This is mass society and they are the ones who influence the future of music formats. There is only so much airtime for radio and with all the pre-programming and monopolizing of radio stations across the globe, p2p wont make as big a dent as people would like to believe. Alternate radio (internet, college, indie, etc.) and p2p underground-music trading just preaches to the choir. Pop music will always be around and mass society will always be controlled by it and attracted to it. True music lovers will benefit from p2p--especially in small, tight-knit performance-oriented music, most notably metal and rap, where the music survives not through record sales and music videos but through small concerts and loyal, long-term fanbases. Bands like Iron Maiden even encourage file-trading! The bands singer, Bruce Dickinson, said in a recent concert that he encourages people to share Maiden songs and dub bootlegs because the true fans will buy the albums and go to the concerts anyway. Lets see Britany Speares make that claim--p2p only destroys shitty music thats based on commercialism, and its about fucking time we had a good housecleaning. Onward with the pop holocaust!

zombie84 · Post by **zombie84** » 2003-09-04 05:15pm

sorry bout that double post.

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2003-09-04 05:18pm

How do you do a double post where your second post is your first quoted?

zombie84 · Post by **zombie84** » 2003-09-04 05:33pm

when you click the quote button thinking its the edit button and then realise after its posted that there is no edit button for this forum. That happens a lot actually. why is there an edit button only for certain forums?

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2003-09-04 05:36pm

zombie84 wrote:when you click the quote button thinking its the edit button and then realise after its posted that there is no edit button for this forum. That happens a lot actually. why is there an edit button only for certain forums?

Double post taken care of and you can thank the likes of Darkstar and his ilk for the no edit feature in certain forums as some people were caught early on editing their posts to get rid of incriminating evidence of their own stupidity. Considering the amount of flames going on in Politics during the Gulf War we decided to extend the no editing into this forum as well.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2003-09-04 05:38pm

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:I don't mean this to sound like propaganda, but I've been thinking something...

Let's say the RIAA does get theirs in a big way and the music industry is turned into a gaggle of artists all releasing their MP3s out on the Internet for 50 cents a song or something along those lines. What happens now that there's no Controlling Corporate Monster essentially censoring out whatever they don't agree with and/or what doesn't earn them anything less than obscenely huge piles of money? It's a foregone conclusion that the RIAA is soon to be dead, buried, and lamented on in the same sentence as the Buggy-Whip factories, so I'm interested in what would happen if music's Cancer were to be cut out to wither and die. My thoughts: People's tastes will start to become more diversified, the music industry will (obviously) emerge from its stagnation all the better since its focus will be on the Artists and the people. And that's essentially what it'll be: the artists and the people. No more cancerous, balding, greedy middleman. Free the Music Industry.

Nicely put Ein, Nicely put.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2003-09-04 07:50pm

Nathan F wrote:
Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:I don't mean this to sound like propaganda, but I've been thinking something...

<SNIP>
Nicely put Ein, Nicely put.

Thanks. Although Zombie84 makes a good counterpoint to mine. Especially the comment that Underground Music is just preaching to the choir

But there's always the occasional young d00d being taught about Underground from his older brother somewhere...

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2003-09-04 08:02pm

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:
Nathan F wrote:
Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:I don't mean this to sound like propaganda, but I've been thinking something...

<SNIP>
Nicely put Ein, Nicely put.
Thanks. Although Zombie84 makes a good counterpoint to mine. Especially the comment that Underground Music is just preaching to the choir But there's always the occasional young d00d being taught about Underground from his older brother somewhere...

Definitely not me. I wish I knew people who listened to Underground music, I could finally get some good metal.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2003-09-04 08:15pm

Vorlon1701 wrote:
Einhander Sn0m4n wrote: Thanks. Although Zombie84 makes a good counterpoint to mine. Especially the comment that Underground Music is just preaching to the choir But there's always the occasional young d00d being taught about Underground from his older brother somewhere...
Definitely not me. I wish I knew people who listened to Underground music, I could finally get some good metal.

Acid Bath! Corporate Avenger! Kottonmouth Kings! Nine Inch Nails! Rorschach Test( <== My friend Mike's band)! Misfits! Cradle of Filth! Bionic Jive! Iron Maiden! The list goes on...

You got Kazaa, you got this list. Now get crackin!

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Music Industry tries gasp price cuts

Music Industry tries gasp price cuts

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Music Industry tries *gasp* price cuts

Music Industry tries *gasp* price cuts

Re: Music Industry tries *gasp* price cuts

Music Industry tries gasp price cuts

Music Industry tries gasp price cuts

Re: Music Industry tries gasp price cuts