Monday, April 26, 2010

Are CDs A Lost Cause?

Universal Music Group just announced that they're going to lower the prices of their CDs to $10 or less. This effort is being made to see if people will be more likely to buy new releases on CDs if they cost less. In an age where anything can be downloaded for free, lowering the prices for the almost forgotten about CD can't hurt. It is, however (in my opinion), too little too late. Downloading music for free has been going on for about 10 years now, and record companies are just now deciding to lower the cost of CDs to compete with downloads? The kicker in this situation is that the price reduction isn't even permanent-- it's just a "pricing test" to see how consumers react to lower prices. The beginning of this temporary price reduction does not have a start date, but it is rumored to begin in the second quarter of this year.

Like I said, this can't hurt, but I do find it a bit humorous that it took someone this long to figure out that lowering prices on CDs may help sales. My predictions for the test: it probably won't help too much. Most young adults don't even buy CDs anymore because they grew up with music downloads, so they probably won't jump on this. Older adults may get into this deal because they're not as tech savvy and many still buy CDs, but we have to remember that the sales will be on new releases. A lot of older people like to buy CDs of artists that they grew up listening to, so the sales may not be on items that they want. Again, I feel as if this attempt is too little too late.

-Ashley Stokvis

source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2010/03/cds_are_cheaper_but_is_univers.html

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