CDs

Graying, Balding, Is The Record Store Ready For Retirement?

July 17, 2006 by Kassia Krozser

It was just yesterday that Kirk looked across the street and said, “Remember when we used to go to Tower Records?” I stared at the garish ketchup-and-mustard sign and nodded. “When was the last time we were there?” He paused, paging through years of his mental calendar. Finally, he settled on a date, “A long time ago.”

We’ve been to places like Amoeba more recently, of course, but even that journey was a long time ago. Poo-Bah’s, an independent record store in our region, moved to a new location — we hadn’t been to the old one in a long time and unless Kirk is keeping secrets, haven’t visited the new one.

The Universal Plan To Save CD Sales

July 6, 2006 by Kassia Krozser

Sometimes, you hear a story and think, “Hmm, good column material.” Sometimes you hear a story and think, “They’ve got to be kidding. Hmm, good column material.” And sometimes you hear a story and think, “What? They’ve got to be kidding me. Hmm, good column material.” Case in point: Universal’s big plans overhaul their CD packaging.

The proposed scheme was all over the news yesterday — such is the luck of those who live in Los Angeles — and goes something like this. Universal will offer snazzy new packaging with higher prices on new releases and no-frills packaging with lower prices on catalog product. See, ’cause it’s the jewel boxes that will drive consumers to the stores.

Are Downloads Licensed Music or Traditional Record Sales?

June 23, 2006 by Jim Connelly

According to at least one major label, they are both!! It just depends on whether you’re an artist or a consumer . . .

I know that it’s old news that Cheap Trick and the Allman Brothers are suing Sony over download royalties: a while back, Kassia did an excellent analysis on it.

The other day, however, I came across a posting on P2Pnet.net (love that name!) that discussed this very topic. The posting had an excerpt from an article in the Internationl Herald Tribune that reminded me just how two-faced the record companies really are when it comes to this issue, and why you have to take it with a grain of salt when they say that they’re (all together now) “just trying to protect the artists” with their draconian download restrictions.

Piracy, Perks, and DRM

March 31, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

The RIAA tells us that piracy hurts artists, so we all try to be good little consumers who acquire music legally whenever possible. Who wants to hurt an artist? It’s like hurting a kitten.

Fortunately, in the 21st century there are quite a few ways to acquire music legally. Thanks to iTunes it’s possible to build your music collection while draining your bank account in 99 cent increments.

If you’re “of a certain age”, you probably still buy quite a few CD’s to round out your music collection. And, if you are a serious music collector, you probably buy a fair number of used CD’s. Serious music collectors have to buy used CD’s because new CD’s are priced for people who like to acquire music in small doses.

Now I’m going to tell you something you probably don’t want to hear: Buying used CD’s hurts artists.

Labels Make Another Dumb-Ass Move

March 10, 2006 by Jim Connelly

According to the New York Times, in a desperate attempt to goose CD sales, major labels are considering stepping back a decade, and experimenting with the concept of not releasing advance single downloads from upcoming albums.

So just as iTunes hits it’s billionth download; and it’s clear that people are embracing downloading as a viable option the major labels decide, welllll, that ain’t good enough.