Think of CD prices nowadays

Due to the greed of the middlemen.
In the chain between Symphony X (as an example) making music and you purchasing their CD, do you honestly believe anyone is being greedy and getting rich? The way you're discussing the topic, you seem to believe that people are setting arbitrary prices for their goods and services.
 
in the current music industry climate, I think as long as music fans are willing to pay for something - be it MP3, CD or even much to my chagrin, streaming - it's a plus. Economically speaking, $14 seems pretty solid for a CD in 2014.

Personally, I buy CD's over anything else and try to find deals when ever possible. I would LOVE for CD's to be priced competitively to MP3/FLAC, but that is probably just wishful thinking. Taking inflation into consideration as well as the demand for CD's being far less than it was 10 years ago, I am actually shocked prices have not gone UP due to novelty value.

I am kind of curious to see where things will go in the next a few years concerning how people get their music fix... by that, I mean that as long as there is a free or "freemium" option that pays little to nothing back to artists/labels and is far more convenient, something is going to have to give at some point. I can't imagine anyone willing to continue making music on a professional scale when having to compete with a free option that doesn't allow them to pay themselves back enough to even buy guitar strings.
 
In the chain between Symphony X (as an example) making music and you purchasing their CD, do you honestly believe anyone is being greedy and getting rich? The way you're discussing the topic, you seem to believe that people are setting arbitrary prices for their goods and services.


Yes, I do. Marginal costs have dropped dramatically over the decades since cds were first introduced. We're witness the rebirth of the collaborative commons. Those who accept it will thrive, while others (like the record industries) will be decimated.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1137278463/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1] The Zero Marginal Cost Society.[/ame]


In my industry, it's common practice to mark up low cost goods by a fairly hefty amount. By the time we get to 75-100k the markup drops below 10%, but....