Books and CD prices

[The waveguide]

I hate shopping. Being yet a student, I feel so miserable when I go to buy a CD or a book for myself. The calculations are always very strict, and at the end I normally finish up asking my parents or friends to bring me a certain CD or a book for my birthday or other closest holiday.

This year I went to Moscow, and I've been to houses of some rather average russian families. Boy, they had CDs and DVDs, especially DVDs for their kids, in amounts that here in Europe I have never seen!!!! Clearly all that was illegal. But, they were BUYING all that illegal stuff (not downloading from the internet). So the question is:

Will it not be better to low down the prices, and then, people will buy five to ten times more stuff? Five to ten times more books, CDs, DVDs? No author or moviemaker will not get less profit, because making it ten times cheaper will sell it may be 20 times more! And it will not be worth then dealing with illegality

Yes somebody will say "production costs money". Bullshit. Production is cheap. I really have no idea what costs here money. But why SO expensive? They loose so much consumers!

 

[SFG75]

Will it not be better to low down the prices, and then, people will buy five to ten times more stuff? Five to ten times more books, CDs, DVDs? No author or moviemaker will not get less profit, because making it ten times cheaper will sell it may be 20 times more! And it will not be worth then dealing with illegality

Economics proclaims that the average price of a given good will equal out since at a certain price, people buy less and less of a product, while the employer will be able to maximize his/her profits. Then again, economic theory is about as valid as selling ocean front property in Arizona.

Yes somebody will say "production costs money". Bullshit. Production is cheap. I really have no idea what costs here money. But why SO expensive? They loose so much consumers!

You do have a point here, the CD was probably made overseas for pennies on the dollar, so it's not as if the $15.00 price is really worth it. I believe the true price should be just under $10.00. Personally, I wouldn't feel bad about copying CDs and that kind of thing. After a person purchses a good, it is their product and they can do with it whatever they want. If they copy for a few friends, that is one thing. If they copy a thousand and set up a website...well,....that's quite another. Yes, stealing is wrong, but so is extortion. Just as the price will equal out, so will stealing temper the greedy appetites of those who inflate the prices of their goods.

In essence....

 

[Motokid]

It's simple supply and demand. There's no doubt that teams of marketing, advertising, and sales people are all deciding what scenario will produce the best numbers in terms of profit. Higher volume/lower price or lower volume/higher price. It's every business's ultimate question on stratagy.

As long as people are willing to pay the exisiting price why change it?
Maybe the formula's all the record companies have working right now point to the current pricing system as the most profitable.

 

[The waveguide]

I do not know. You are right that "as long as people are willing to pay the exisiting price why change it?"

But yet, the previous year I found the "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ " by Jose Saramago which price was three-times reduced! I bought two books to two of my friends who have not read it yet, as a present for coming holidays.

They reduced the price - I bought it TWICE even though I myself read it and even though otherwise I will may be buying only one book for only one friend.

By the same opportunity, there was also other reduced book that I bought for myself, by Alfred Doblin, "Berlin Alexanderplatz". Boooooring. Otherwise I would do some reasearch whether to buy it or not, but for those prices I even did not think twice.

Same with CDs. I am doing lots of reaserch before I know what CD I buy. But if it would be cheaper- I would not think twice. At the end I will probably spend twice the amout of money that I spend today buying many CDs, I think it is the way the psycology works.

 

[SFG75]

I know of a bookstore that has excellent books. Just like Moto stated, if you don't shell out the money for a given work, chances are, the prices will come down. I've seen books start out at roughly $40.00 and then plummet all the way down to $2.00. Now you can predict what books these will be as Plato doesn't outsell Nora Roberts or Clive Cussler. They are then placed in the discount bin and then the book is ripe for the pickin'

 

[The waveguide]

Except that normally nobody wants to wait untill they are ripe. I want to have a book the very moment that I want to have it, and not the next year or even next 100 years. It is nice when I can borrow a book from my friend, but when nobody have it, than you just buy for whatever price they hold at the moment.
Well, it is not surprising that piratic stuff is blooming. And you know what- I just do not feel bad about "stealing" CDs from the internet. I feel that it is the way that one should fight this unjustice.
Books I do not download, because in the worse case I just find something in russian is some russian bookshop, and it is very-very cheap (I have no idea why, but they claim it is legal AND cheap. May be they know that otherwise russians will not be able to buy the book anyway?) So I am rather thankful to my parents for not letting me forget this language after their immigration, but I still think it is a rather poor solution.

Viva les pirates?

 

[abecedarian]

You know, all this is a reminder of what a boon used bookstores are to folks like us who are not independently wealthy. Considering what the average writer makes off each title that sells at retail, I wonder if it would be so stupid to send them a dollar or two when I find one of their books at bargain prices. Stephen King might not miss the $$, but the average author doesn't make megabucks like he does.

 

[The waveguide]

I wonder where goes most of the money that one pays per book. It does not seem to me that the author gets most of it. May be the publisher?

 

[Stewart]

the CD was probably made overseas for pennies on the dollar, so it's not as if the $15.00 price is really worth it.

$15.00 ?

That's about £8 over here. Apart from the supermarkets (at £9.99) the CD stores usually charge another couple of quid on top of that. I went to buy Francois Breut album and the price was $£18.99 - I was not paying that. I'm happy to use Amazon for my CD purchases since I think music shops are taking the piss.

 

[The waveguide]

I'm happy to use Amazon for my CD purchases since I think music shops are taking the piss.

Amazon also annoyes me but for the other reason. They are monopolists!!!! I HATE THAT
I was looking for a certain book half a year ago. Amazon did not have it (time delivery was something rediculous like half-a-year) . So I tried to search for other online book stores. Every bookstore had a link to Amazon,when I was asking about that specific book! That was crazy! It was like in a magic circle, which always ended up with Amazon!

I hate monopolies, and those who hold prices for CDs and for books.

 

[Ms.]

Sony(others may wel be at it) are selling cd/dvd's to online retailors at a higher price so as to cut out the discount. That irks me and i'm sure that if it continues the eu shall do something about it.

 

[cajunmama]

This is why, when I do buy, I tend to shop used first. If I am going to shell out big bucks for something new, I think long and hard about it.

 

[Motokid]

Waveguide....are you close friends with Ms.? You both enjoy being thieves and hate paying what the market sets the prices at.

I hope you both realise you are part of the problem, not the solution....

Stealing the things you want will only drive the cost higher....

 

[Miss Shelf]

I used to buy videos fairly regularly, the price was right. But now DVDs have taken over, and I balk at spending $30 for a movie I don't know I'll like. Plus with DVDs you have to be oh-so-careful not to scratch them or get fingerprints on them, while I can literally toss videos onto a shelf without worrying about ruining them.

I wonder if they cut out all the "extras" they cram in on DVDs-I'm not that interested in watching actors kiss each others' butts and the director patting himself on the back-would the prices be lower? Do I have to wait another 5-10 years before DVD movies become more affordable? By that time they will have come out with another version of DVD that will eventually replace the ones of today.

 

[The waveguide]

Well, I believe that when everybody will download music from internet and NOT buying those expensive CDs, the price will get lower.
They will have to get rid of those CDs somehow. And generally, I would prefer to buy them then. Sound sometimes is better with the real CD (but even this is not always. Clearly I prefer to have a CD. But I am NOT paying those prices- I just can not.).

 

[The waveguide]

I now DVDs have taken over, and I balk at spending $30 for a movie I don't know I'll like.

Why to buy when you can download?
If you'll like it really really hard, you can then go and buy.

 

[Motokid]

But I am NOT paying those prices- I just can not.).

Not being able to afford something like a CD or DVD does not justify stealing it. Pirating is stealing.

Refusing to pay for something and pirating it is stealing as well....it will not solve the problem, only make it worse....

Think about being in the musicians shoes, or the authors shoes. You've done the creative side of the equation, and managed to get yourself recorded/published. Then you go on an internet forum and find people are stealing your work because they just refuse to pay for it.

You are being very selfish and have an "I deserve it" mentality. Meanwhile you are doing nothing to help the very artist you like so much. You are only hurting them.

 

[cajunmama]

But sometimes you get crappy pirated stuff, and that's a rip-off, too. We borrowed a friend's illegal DVD copy of the third Star Wars movie about the same time it came out in theaters and the sound track was about five seconds behind the visual. We watched about a minute of it.

 

[Miss Shelf]

Why to buy when you can download?
If you'll like it really really hard, you can then go and buy.

I don't particularly want to have the government pounding on my door, that's why.

What you propose is no different than shoplifting a book from a bookstore. I'm an honest person. There is very little in this world I cannot absolutely live without. If you can't wait till you can afford something the way most other people do, then you have a problem.

That's the last I'll post here, I don't like to encourage people who promote dishonesty.

 

[Motokid]

Would you buy a car if you knew it was stolen?

Why are books and music and movies any different?

Do you steal food? Do you cheat on your income taxes? Do you shoplift other things at stores like camera's, batteries, video games, beer, cigarettes....

Stealing is stealing and there's no way to justify it.