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Cut-price & luxury versions of the same CD

It would seem that the regular version it what most buyers would purchase. If you are just interested in listening to music the luxury would be a waste of money. Is there actually that much of market for the enhanced CD. As long as you want to listen on a computer and watch a video at the same time then the luxury would be OK.
 
I don't know... I'd see most people buying the cut-rate one (if they buy any of them), assuming the recording fidelity is the same. ~US$3 for a cover (available lo-res at amazon.com for free) and lyrics (available free many places) seems a bit much. I'd want the CD for better-than-iTunes fidelity, but I don't need anything else with it.

I don't see stores wanting to stock 3 versions of each CD, though.
 
Can't see too many retailers happy to stock 3 different versions of the same product. Don't think this idea will also work too well with non-chart albums either.

Mind you, I guess it's similar to having different DVDs (director's cut, wide-screen etc.)

Really think they're thrashing about with this one...
 
i am the multimedia supervisor for a borders, i can tell you from what we carry and what people buy, and from my time as a multimedia seller at best buy, cds are in a serious downward slide.
people don't buy cds much anymore, especially with backlist (older) cds being so expensive. no one wants to pay more for a cd than they do for a new release dvd. as consumers we are trained to believe cds are the better option, that movies are high priced. with dvd really coming into its own this is no longer the case, and retailers/music companies are facing a serious issue as they see their yearly sales tank.
its a case of a day late and a dollar short. consumers don't want to pay extra, but they want what they are used to. its going to piss people off to be told liner notes, etc are extra, but the cd itself will still cost less on itunes.
craziness.
-carly
 
seems like a totally lousy idea to me... if people want the video extras, they'll buy a seperate dvd. who knows though... maybe i just cant conceptualize this early in the morning...
 
gwuMACaddict said:
seems like a totally lousy idea to me... if people want the video extras, they'll buy a seperate dvd. who knows though... maybe i just cant conceptualize this early in the morning...
Click to expand...

agreed. enhanced cds containing video extras have not been a superstrong selling point for anyone thus far, as most consumers aren't buying their cds based on whether or not they can hear their favorite band babble about their tour for 20 minutes. and the quality on music dvds is vastly improved over cds with video clips.
but seriously, why make people pay that much more for the liner notes? this is bad...not to mention (and i dont know why it didnt occur to me when i read this over last night) most retailers dont want to bother to stock 3 versions of a title...thats excess inventory, especially once the highest selling option is established (for an example, unless you move a LOT of dvds, most retailers will only carry censored/uncensored stuff for big titles. the rest are one or the other.)
unless the RIAA can come up with some real innovation, their days are numbered.
 
Guess it just shows the poverty of thinking by the majors.

Thought it was a joke when I first saw it in the paper -- but no, it's not April the 1st.

Interesting to see how quickly this fails -- they're trying it in Germany first.
 
Maybe it will work in Germany. The marketing hacks do say people's buying habits differ in Europe. :rolleyes:

I know that if I'm going to go to the trouble to buy a CD, personally I do want the art and liner notes and lyrics, but could give two figs for so-called "enhanced" content. The no-frills "anti-piracy" version doesn't offer me anything I can't duplicate on my own computer, and the "luxury" version doesn't offer me anything I'd use.

Do the people in those record company meeting rooms actually talk to their friends and acquaintances and neighbors, or anyone actually outside the recording industry (and I don't mean in focus groups)? Don't they realize that CD sales aren't falling due to the format, but because the business model based on high-volume sales of a very few acts is killing their industry?

The more they figure on getting all of their profit from blockbuster sales of the 40 bands they pick to hype on MTV/radio/tours/etc, the more the public gets used to hearing only those bands, and the more the public will want everything they hear to sound just like those bands, and the more everything else will not sell. It's a vicious cycle created and sustained by their own marketing engine, and just too damn bad that they're falling victim to it. :mad:

In most businesses, there is a natural cycle of conglomeration followed by fragmentation. Little guys get bought up by big guys until there are only big guys, and then the big guys collapse under their own weight (or under anti-trust legislation) and then the little guys jump back in to fill the void. Except now the big guys have powerful lobbying groups to which the entire government seems to bow, so they try and prop up unsustainable business strategies through protectionist legislation and anti-consumer technology.

I hope I live to see it all go belly-up within my lifetime. I just wish that it weren't the artists who will probably catch the brunt of the collapse.
 
This is sort of amusing really. What was happening already with some releases in the UK at least, is that a basic CD would be released initially, followed a few months later by an "enhanced" version with possibly a few new tracks (live versions perhaps), in some cases a second disk even. The idea is that the die-hard fans who bought the first version would stump up again for the the enhanced one.

Now that the download services are providing access to individual tracks, this approach is going to fail. So they come up with the "new" idea of releasing multiple versions at the same time. This is at least an improvement sure, brought about from competition from download services.
 
What is the solution when your bread and butter is a significantly overpriced, dying format, and consumers are flocking to more reasonably priced and user-friendly options?

First, try to sue, legislate, and manuver those options out of business. When that fails, why not try a rehash of your dying format that actually gives the comsumer less, rather than more, for their money?

Sure, that's going to work just great.
 
Wait a minute, let me get this strait.

Yeah I'll buy the CD with just the Audio on it no problem. I don't need videos and "extras", just the music thank you.

But I wouldn't shell out a dime for a cheap looking two cent CD with a labelmaker printed label to tell me whos on the CD.

Give me a break! They can't even make the little fold out CD art to go in the case with the lyrics on the back. Or come up with some design on the CD. Call me vain but if I spent money on something that is as highly marked up as an audio CD it should at least be pretty. :mad:

At least thats what I'm getting from the article. I could be wrong.
 
The no-frills version will look virtually identical to a pirate copy, with only the title printed directly on the disc. It will cost €9.99
Click to expand...
Since I live in the US I wanted to see how much 9.99 Euros is in US dollars so I went to Yahoo Finance and it turns out that the no-frills version costs $12.36. Isn't that about how much a normal CD costs at best buy?
 
more independence

we need independent radios and local radio stations all over, and stop thinking about music as a $ business for a while and then good music will come back in and be heard again. the 'music business' only started its serious serious trends when the beatles came around ... luckily for us they were talented..... but then they milk the sh** out of rock, now rap is almost dry, it's a terrible process. i wish i was alive in the 60s, buying a vinyl so i can read the linear notes and play the record endlessly... now they want to sell us a burned copy with nothing except a felt tip marker name because we don't buy as much anymore? geez... it's so sad. i used to buy music because it was good... and the reason i only buy an album or two a year (if that) is because thats how many albums i'd actually listen to came out.
 
Its not a bad idea. The problem with that is people will more than likley buy the cheaper verision, and then the Record lable is going to complain cause there not selling enough of the higher product.
 
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