Why 99 cents is too much for a song.
I know this is looong overdue, but it doesn’t matter. 99 cents is still standard for a song and it’s too much. Think about this, a cd costs, lets go for the low, $15 for a cd with 16 songs. Minus $6 for distribution the cd is $9 to send to best buy. Best buy gets their profit loss cut (They take a loss because you buy a cd and they make a profit on the cd player; they win) and lets say the cd is worth $6. I’m not good at math, so my calculator says each song is 40 cents. Without the cuts, the songs are worth roughly 94 cents.
Now why pay 99 cents? I would love to support your artists, love to support your million dollar condo’s for the big artists, and for the struggling artists, I would love to support your music if it went back to the bootleg $5 cd days, maybe $10 for your cd if I got to listen to it first. But really, I myself have been on the roman noodle diet trying to pay off my loans, how am I gonna for over 99 cents for a song that I can hear on the radio if I had one, overplayed on MTV if I had cable? When somebody came to me trying to sell their independent album for $8, I talked them down to five.
With the recording process getting cheaper because of Pro Tools LE, mbox and not even needing pure acoustics no more, why should the fans still pay the same price? I say with all these lay offs of the major labels come through, at least have online MP3’s DRM free, and maybe 50 cents. Why pay cd price for an mp3 you can even easier get for free. Sell more at shows, with other things, get creative with it. With computers getting cheaper, free wi fi, people can more easily access iTunes, but even easier access these downloading sites to get all songs for free. The rich complain because their money flow is slowing, and the not so rich are over saturating the industry online, somebody either needs to stand out now, or make the mp3’s cheaper or free with ticket sales. You get better quality for free than paid for now and its crazy.
I’ve been coming up with my own plans on ways to boost the industry and most of them have one thing. Make mp3’s cheapers, cd’s cheaper, more profit to the artist means more power to their music, and most importantly, although Lil Wayne is close to double platinum or already made it… does not mean you will. One strategy is not the same for the next anymore, get creative or get lost in this huge sea of too many fish with not enough bait. Please comment and tell me what yall think.
From the mind of Keveeno
July 17, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Nice Site layout for your blog. I am looking forward to reading more from you.
Tom Humes
July 17, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Thank you, and I look forward to writing more
Keveeno
August 4, 2008 at 1:38 pm
you fail to mention the digital distribution costs — iTunes keeps about half of that 99 cents; also, Pro Tools has helped alot, but it still costs 20 – 50 thousand dollars to make a great album . you ask why should the fans pay when they can get it free ; answer this: why should musicians spend 20 thousand dollars on an album to give it away ?
August 4, 2008 at 2:02 pm
What I was trying to state was that the cost for digital distribution should actually be lower. I know that everybody takes their cut, but because of the drop of people purchasing music in general, shouldn’t the record industry take a step back to help lower the costs? I understand it costs a lot of money to make an album, but sometimes if you lower the price of something more people will purchase it and in the end make more money off of performing since more people know of your music. That is just one way, but there are a lot more ways to go at this new music business, and sometimes change is needed.