The 800lb gorilla vs a 10,000 gorilla

[mech]

If WalMart is sucessful at this strategy it will good for everyone but especially those like me that are a bit older (40). I like the music of the 70s, 80s and maybe a little of the 90s [personally I feel the music died in the mid 90s when the record excecs started pusing Rap and the CD loudness wars took off in full steam]. Most of those are already in the $10 category because the younger folks don't want them.

I think there are a handful of newer bands that write good music but I have no desire to pay $19 for a CD where I will probably like only one song. Of course taste changes over time and I think a band like 3 Doors Down has a chance at being a 'supergroup' like 70s/80s/90s bands like Journey, Styx, etc that have had 30+ year careers. So I am slowly warming up to some of the newer music - just not at $19 a pop.

While I agree with about 99% of your views, Three doors down will never be a supergroup like the ones you mentioned.

 

[Craig234]

Personally, I find Wal-Mart's business practices so distastateful and predatory that I refuse to do business with them just on principal. That leaves me with Costco and Amazon.com (and a few other online sites ) for my music and DVD purchases. Being an old guy, I still like to own the source; my downloading experiences have been very unsatisfactory.

God, I'm turning into a curmudgeon!

I agree. I spend $0 at Wal-Mart.

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

p.s. What's wrong with recordings has more to do with the musicians low standards and greed than anything else.

I'm blaming the labels myself. While the artists should be more vocal about the problem... its really not their property anymore, is it?

 

[Jack Hammer]

honestly...

...I really don't know. When I was a teenager, I roadied for my friends band. Nothing major, just local stuff, though they opened for a lot of bigger 'national' bands at local places. From what little I was personally exposed to, I saw a lot of bands take it in the @$$ financially from those who 'signed' them to a record lable, it was definately a pay-to-play situation.

On the other hand, I saw quite a few 'signed' bands who really didn''t draw much of a crowd and can understand how their 'national tour' was really crap and a waste of advertising dollars for the record industry who took a chance on them.

I'm not defending record lables, I'm just pointing out that they actually do spend money on 'investments' that are losing ventures. And that there is more to consider than the individual cost of printing a cd.

I've also personally witnessed local talent who spends money to produce a so called independant release and has a difficult time getting people to buy it, then sells it to a lable and it takes off.

Point is, there is so much BS in general in that industry that it can be difficult to tell who is full of crud (nicespeak for cr@P) and who isn't.

Overall, I'm with most people that cd's cost too much, but as I said, I really don't know. Profitability is relative, just because an industry is making a profit doesn't mean they are screwing everyone (keyword is everyone- please don't flame me).

 

[STRONGBADF1]

I'm blaming the labels myself. While the artists should be more vocal about the problem... its really not their property anymore, is it?

Yes, but if the "artists" (god I don't like that word in this context) cared more about the sound and less about the money they would make the music they want to make and not what the industry "know it alls" tell them they have to and to a quality that sounds good on something other than an ipod or fm radio.

I know many bands would never be heard this way and the ones that did might not make as much money but the industry as a whole would be better off IMO.

Sorry about the hijack,
SBF1

 

[Rob Babcock]

Obviously there's a financial risk to the labels. Only 1-3% of all records make money at all. There are thousands of CDs released each year that sell in the low hundreds! Of course, one Dipp Shiddy or Maria Carey disc covers the cost of dozens of them, if not hundreds.

Still, that model has earned them a lot of profits in the past. In my mind it's not downloads, etc hurting them- it's their failure to comprehend that their business model has become obsolete.

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

Sad thing is that it will take the financial demise of the "Big" labels to change the industry to a point where smaller labels, and individual artists will finally take charge of quality in the product.