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Music downloads price-fixing investigation

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The US justice department just announced an investigation into the major record companies for price-fixing on music file downloads...

What do you think of current music download stores and their prices? Do you use them? Does anyone still buy cds...? Is there a difference between markets (US, Europe, Asia, etc.)?

I feel like there need to be a lot of changes in the way music is sold in the world since the standard is now mp3 files rather than cds...but with only four major companies dominating the market, it's doubtful that any real changes will occur. Have to wait and see if this investigation has any real effects. The real problem is that the profits for most music get sucked up by music execs rather than artists...which is just sad

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mp3 files ? I have thought that the formats used to sell by the big companies were their own special format.

I think it's a rip-off since buying online songs is most of the time the same price than buying them the usual way, we can't use it like we want (if we want to make our own compilation or use it with different products (cd player, computer, mp3 player, car...), we can lose them (I think it can be easier to lose online music than cd)... and sound quality isn't most of the time as good as cd. Moreover, the online music is less costly to produce but we don't really see a difference in price... well considering than the price of producing cd has also decreased but musical companies weren't that interested to drive the price down, it isn't really surprising.

There's a long time I don't buy cd anymore... wasn't really interested by music ... I have a hard time concentrate too long just on music (no more than 2 minutes, I think -_- ) ... and well when I have thought about it (and the price), I concluded that the most reasonable way was to buy books, games...

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-renkinjutsushi-

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I still buy CDs because I think buying individual .mp3s is more often than not a ripoff. Besides, when I own the CD, I have the right to rip it to my computer and put it on my .mp3 player - I DON'T have the right to share it online. That way, if the file becomes corrupted I can always re-rip the track and not have to pay for it again.

I also dislike the personalized encoding that all the companies do. It irritates the crap out of me that I can load music on my iPod but not rip it back off. >.<

I like music, I really do. But if this insanity keeps up, I'll just go back to listening to the radio and then they won't be getting ANY money out of me, period.

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Spystreak

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I personally think the age of Cd's is dead. If i had to guess I'd say 3 out of 4 people had either an iPod or some other form of MP3 player.

I personally prefer Cd's over buying individual songs. I mean if you like a band then why not buy the full cd's and not just certain songs. True there are some artists that a person may only like one or two songs. As far as pricing goes I have no idea I don't buy music online so I wouldn't know the price range although I have seen some sites with songs for around a dollar.

From what I understand in the Asian market cd's are still big and in my opinion far superior to US cd's. For one thing they are cheaper at an average of 13-15 dollars including MV's and an average of around 16 songs for some some less some more.

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eXDream2K5

eXDream2K5

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I still buy CDs, but I'm often disappointed if I buy a CD and there's only 2 good songs on it (like Muse's CD, Absolution ). Why waste $16 on a crappy CD? Better yet, why pay FYE's outrageous prices ($18 or more for a CD I could buy at MediaPlay for between $10 and $16) for a CD? Anymore I buy all my CDs from Amazon.com and YesAsia.com.

btw if someone could tell me where I could buy the old Iceman CDs, as well as Kotani Kinya's CDs, I'd really appreciate it. I can't find these CDs on YesAsia.com, which is most unfortunate.

Here's an idea for the RIAA: buy LimeWire, Kazaa, and the other illegal P2P services, and rather than sue the downloaders, charge them $5 a month, and this covers ALL downloads. Pure profit, plain and simple, and no one feels cheated. I think the money should go to the artists/songwriters, though, and not to the record labels.

Labels are for cans. I'm not a f*cking can.

Yea, CDs are basically dead. People prefer IPods and MP3 players. I haven't bought a CD in a long time, and probably never will again.

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Kidder

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CD's will become a collectors item just like vinyls. I haven't bought a CD in a looong time, but if I hear a really good album I will buy the CD and use it as a item to add to my collection rather than a cd i listen to (unless it's in my car, which can play cd's).

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Quote by alminamp3 files ? I have thought that the formats used to sell by the big companies were their own special format.

I think it's a rip-off since buying online songs is most of the time the same price than buying them the usual way, we can't use it like we want

Oh right...I've never purchased a download file so I forgot that each company also uses its own special format to prevent people from spreading the files...I agree that forcing such restricttions definitely rips off consumers, especially since personal copies of music back when tapes and even cds were the dominant format were very common
I find it especially ridiculous that you can't use any kind of mp3 player with any download format

I agree that buying a whole album is really nice when you like the artist anyway...it would be nice if prices in the US were less ridiculous though

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Wow, this is just... I have not the words to describe the stupidity of record companies in making their own special format that is incompatible which just about everything else on the market. I usually share CDs with friends so I haven't run into any of the download problems that people seem to have. Seriously, reading this thread is making me think that the record industry is completely out of touch with their customers.

Mnemeth

Mnemeth

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Quote by alminamp3 files ? I have thought that the formats used to sell by the big companies were their own special format.

Thats true. Even the iTunes "mp3" format is bound to Apple's proprietary coding so that it isn't supposed to be able to be used on anything other than iPods or iTunes.

Quote by -renkinjutsushi-Besides, when I own the CD, I have the right to rip it to my computer and put it on my .mp3 player

Hate to break it to ya but the RIAA is even trying to remove that right. They've actually stated publically that consumers should not have any rights to transfer the music from its purchased format into any copy or any other format.

I kinda think that they are tyring to fix prices. They are pressring iTunes to adopt a scaled pricing scheme (i.e more popular or newer music costs more) and they ar trying to increase their take of iTunes profits (I think they are trying to incease from like 7 or 10% to 30%)

Bottom line is that they are corporations and corporations are intended to make money. However, these corporations have been screwing over consumers for several decades and now that they have been losing the incredible profits they've been making (and they are still profitable just not as much as before) they are whining like b#$%@@s. ^_^'

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Str1X

Str1X

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Music prices are insane. I will not pay $0.99 for a song. Its a waste really. There are CD's out there with 15 tracks, some with 10. Why pay $0.99/song if the album has 15-20 tracks?
The record companies should go more into their prices. They are ripping people off.

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somebodyelse

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somebodyelse

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Well, I still buy CD's; I don't have an mp3 player yet. I was seriously considering getting one of the new video-playing Ipods, but the whole compatibility wars thing makes me think twice. Think about it, if somebody comes out with a new awesome mp3 player in the future to eclipse the Ipod, then anything you got off Itunes is going to all of a sudden be worth jack, and you'll have to re-download all your stuff again, and pay for it again. Ditto if your hard drive crashes.

I wouldn't have a problem at all paying $.99 for a track IF it was universally compatible. But between both the mp3 giants' format squabbles and the RIAA's increasingly draconian methods of trying to keep people from copying their legally purchased stuff, I'm getting a little disgusted with the way the music distribution industry is going. I read an article in Maximum PC about several CDs (I think Faith Hill's was one of them) with anti-copy "protection" that crashed almost all PC's they were put in; many of them would up needing dealer repairs. That's just asenine; if all CD-player devices cannot play a CD, then it's not really a CD.

Quote by cyd84The real problem is that the profits for most music get sucked up by music execs rather than artists...which is just sad


Huge second on that- I don't know the numbers on what end percentage of the profits go to the artists, but if it's less than 50% then the record companies should really take a hard look at how many "middlemen" it takes to do distribution, licensing, legal battles, release scheduling and such. I mean, without the artists, they'd be out of a job. Just my $0.02
:pacman: Sorry about the length, but yeah, this hit a nerve!

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