The_Lhc said:
Costs too much to produce at a guess, discs are cheap.
It is not just the discs that are cheap, but also the factory time required to get data onto the disc/stick.
For
discs:
The retail cost of a recordable bluray disc is about 50p.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/TDK-Blu-ray-Disc-Spindle-Printable/dp/B002RT85RW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446302407&sr=8-1&keywords=blank+bluray+discs
The cost to the music producer will be less than that, plus the music data is imprinted onto the disc when it is pressed, so the physical disc arrives at their factory with no additional operations needed.
The overall cost to the music producer for the physical bluray disc, containing the music will be of the order of pence.
For
memory sticks:
The retail cost of a blank 32 Gb memory stick is of the order of 8 pounds.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-Technology-DataTraveler-Generation-Flash/dp/B00C5K8E1A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446302733&sr=8-1&keywords=32+gb+memory+sticks
The cost to the music producer will be less than that, but they still have to get the music loaded onto the memory stick. Anyone who uses a computer will know that it will take several minutes to load the 25Gb of data onto the memory stick. This time represents the bottleneck on how many copies of the music can be produced each day, and leave the factory door. The more discs/memory sticks that leave the factory, the lower the unit operating cost, and the larger the profit.
The upstream costs of initially recording the music, and downstream costs of marketing etc will be the same, whatever medium is used.
But overall the music producer will always see optical discs as the cheaper solution.