the price of CDs

[bigfish786]

had a few cd's on today, winding down for the weekend. i stumbled across a cd with the price label still on it from the record shop (remember them) that i'd bought it from. the price was £15.49 for the cd. this was in 2002. in todays terms i would guess that would be double now!

is there any wonder the music shops have all but vanished off the planet.?you can understand why napster was so popular back then when buying music was ridiculously expensive.

in my local town we had 5 or 6 shops selling cds/lp/tapes back in the late 80's. they have all gone. we now have one "boutique" style shop that sells records and cd's but its small scale, and limited stock.

i miss browsing in music shops, but i don't miss the excessive prices.

the music industry always blamed the pirates for copying and selling music. i think the music industry killed itself. with pricing. there's no wonder i only bought the odd cd every now and then, at that price.

 

[ela-ted]

Inflation calculator puts it at £21.35 - but no one paid full price did they? They were usually discounted down to about a tenner (now £13.77), which is still absurd. Generally they're slightly less than that now, its just that no one buys them. It used to be that bands toured at a loss to promote the album, now they have to tour to make a living.

 

[eggontoast]

Unfortunately it seems that the price of CD's is on their way back up. Anybody else noticed that Amazons CD's have gone up in price now they've eliminated the competition.

 

[Kamikaze Bitter]

I miss the experience of browsing in a record shop too. You never knew what you might find. Having said that I think music - if not the big music companies - is in pretty good shape these days. The choice available is phenomenal. In fact the problem is that there is too much! When a CD or an LP cost and arm and a leg, I really listened to it, and in some cases came to love some recordings. Things that havew stayed with me over many years. Now I go through my collection and find things I've bought, forgotten, and never played.

 

[bigfish786]

in general, amazon can be full of bargains.. but every now and then you stumble across something like this ...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00000E671/sr=1-3/qid=1396634474/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1396634474&seller=&sr=1-3

i bought this on cassette as a teenager, as i didn't own a cd player at the time. the price is obscene.!

 

[Freddy58]

Weren't CD's around a tenner when they came out? That makes them a pretty good buy, in relative terms...

 

[Frank Harvey]

The problem is that less and less people supported record shops, so they whittled down to the independent ones that have been around for decades and have a large, regular customer database.

If Amazon start sticking their prices up (and let's face it, all big, greedy corporations do), that might make space in the market for more high street stores to pop up - then it's just down to those that miss them to start using them and support them.

I too would rather use a record store, and despite Record Store Day doing its thing, maybe there should be a few campaigns to make people understand how these things work, and get people back to buying from stores rather than using Amazon for, well, just about everything.

 

[BigH]

Have not noticed price increases on Amazon but I don't buy many new cds, if I do its often from sellers on there, you can get many jazz cds from USA or Germany for a lot less, last one I bought ws an ECM Tord Gustavsen Trio - Being There, excellent recording, came from Germany, brand new shink wraped for about £5 plus £1.26 postage, another ECM I got from USA for £5. Most others I buy used for about £0.01 + postage, only had 1 faulty one and they replaced free. Yes makes me sick now the money spent on cds in the 90s, most of which I no longer play.

 

[Freddy58]

As far as I'm concerned, CD's are by and large, dirt cheap. When you consider that a CD in the mid eightees cost £10, maybe £30-£40 these days? I think the price has been forced down by the ability to digitise music (illegal download). Maybe the cheapness has resulted (what I see as) in the throw-away nature of music? When I paid good money for an album, I made sure I gave it a good listen. Has music suffered as a result? I don't have the answer to that. Well I do, but I'd only get accused of being stuck in the past, and being an old git

 

[matthewpiano]

I have pretty much stopped buying CDs from Amazon. I buy all my classical CDs at work (our shop has a very good classical recordings department) and all the other stuff from either HMV or Fopp, both of which are pretty good at present. Yesterday I was looking for two specific albums - one by Traffic and one by John Mellencamp - and managed to get both in-store. I love browsing and often spend my lunch hour doing so, so I am very happy to support proper physical musical shops.

 

[Freddy58]

I have pretty much stopped buying CDs from Amazon. I buy all my classical CDs at work (our shop has a very good classical recordings department) and all the other stuff from either HMV or Fopp, both of which are pretty good at present. Yesterday I was looking for two specific albums - one by Traffic and one by John Mellencamp - and managed to get both in-store. I love browsing and often spend my lunch hour doing so, so I am very happy to support proper physical musical shops.

Ahh, the good old days. Spending ages flicking through loads of albums, checking out the covers, maybe asking the assistant to put something on and listening to stuff on headphones, or maybe in a booth

 

[steve_1979]

I miss the experience of browsing in a record shop too. You never knew what you might find.

I prefer browsing on Spotify and YouTube then buying the CD off Amazon.

 

[slice]

Most of my cds are classical. I like reading reviews of the performances on Amazon , though after that I often buy 2nd hand on Amazon Marketplace. I honestly think it's never been cheaper to build up a good classical cd collection, and I presume the high number of independent sellers on Amazon suggest it's still a significant market. I also browse and buy at HMV - the local store has a very wide choice these days.

 

[Freddy58]

I miss the experience of browsing in a record shop too. You never knew what you might find.

I prefer browsing on Spotify and YouTube then buying the CD off Amazon.

This is what I mean, it's all too easy these days. Throw away music.....

 

[bigfish786]

i know damn well if things would have carried on with cd's getting more and more expensive, i would have stopped buying stuff. i simply couldn't afford those inflated prices.

ebay (in the early days) helped me a lot.

amazon now is my favoured online source. a few weeks ago, i went to a discount music shop, between myself and the girlfriend we bought ten cd's. we paid 29 quid for the lot.

how times have changed.

 

[steve_1979]

This is what I mean, it's all too easy these days.

Surely it's better to browse music by listening to it in the comfort of your own home rather than looking at the album covers in a shop.

Throw away music.....

What do you mean by this?

 

[Freddy58]

This is what I mean, it's all too easy these days.

Surely it's better to browse music by listening to it in the comfort of your own home rather than looking at the album covers in a shop.

Throw away music.....

What do you mean by this?

Yes, it is easier to browse music in the comfort of your own home, but where's the fun in that? No sense of occasion.

Play a bit, listen to a bit, skip this, skip that....throw away music. Music is so cheap these days, no value..

 

[steve_1979]

Yes, it is easier to browse music in the comfort of your own home, but where's the fun in that? No sense of occasion.

Everyone to their own I suppose. :cheers:

Play a bit, listen to a bit, skip this, skip that....throw away music.

That's what I call browsing.

Music is so cheap these days, no value.

Not to me. Once I have the music I like I keep it forever and listen to it over and over again for years.

 

[Freddy58]

Not to me. Once I have the music I like I keep it forever and listen to it over and over again for years.

I don't doubt it. I was only speaking in general terms

 

[Womaz]

I miss the experience of browsing in a record shop too. You never knew what you might find.

I prefer browsing on Spotify and YouTube then buying the CD off Amazon.

Me too

 

[shep1968]

The problem is that less and less people supported record shops, so they whittled down to the independent ones that have been around for decades and have a large, regular customer database.

If Amazon start sticking their prices up (and let's face it, all big, greedy corporations do), that might make space in the market for more high street stores to pop up - then it's just down to those that miss them to start using them and support them.

I too would rather use a record store, and despite Record Store Day doing its thing, maybe there should be a few campaigns to make people understand how these things work, and get people back to buying from stores rather than using Amazon for, well, just about everything.

Perhaps amazon are putting their prices up as they are selling less or that their purchase costs are going up? Would you pay more for a record shop purchase than Amazon? Would you go to the cheaper store if you were looking at a pruchase from two independents?

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

Back when I was working for Our Price in the early to mid 90s, full price albums were £14.99 - £15.99, the older mid-price reissues were around £9.99. Chart/new releases were discounted £9.99-£10.99 for single albums, the double comps like Now were £14.99 - £15.99.

CDs were over priced then, vinyl is now.

 

[lpv]

never bought anything off amazon, never will... I don't buy cd's anymore.. spotify, soundcloud, nts radio, bleep, bandcamp, music blogs - that's my browsing.. then it's a download only for me...

I dream bout CD quality streaming service with 10s of millions of songs catalogue for £10 max.. and it will happen

 

[matthewpiano]

I often use Spotify to try something out, but if I like it I will go and buy it from a shop on CD. Occasionally I buy vinyl, but much of the new stuff is over-priced as has already been pointed out.

For classical music my browsing in the shop is often preceded by reading reviews and articles in Gramophone magazine (which is now once again the rigorous publication it always used to be) and BBC Music.

 

[Brentford Bob]

in general, amazon can be full of bargains.. but every now and then you stumble across something like this ...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00000E671/sr=1-3/qid=1396634474/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1396634474&seller=&sr=1-3

i bought this on cassette as a teenager, as i didn't own a cd player at the time. the price is obscene.!

Great album! Saw them a few times at the Marquee back in the day.

Try finding a cd copy of Cro-mags Age Of Quarrel for less than fifty quid.....