Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU (12/20/90)
Really-From: "Andy Gough, x4-2906, pager 420-2284, CH2-59" <AGOUGH%FAB6@sc.intel.com> Date: Tue, 18 Dec 90 14:40:53 PST From: derek%sunstroke@sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: Survey results and draft letter to EMI >Below the results is a draft letter I propose to send to Mr. Steve Davis, >Product Manager at EMI London. I am sure all of you will not agree with what >I have said. If you have any suggestions to make, please email me. The >letter will not be mailed until after New Year as I will be away for a week >from Thursday and I have too much to do before then. It will also give some >of you time to respond. [...] >preposterous. A similar situation exists in the USA. The cost to US dealers >is approximately $125 (#64) meaning profit margins for the sellers are >sometimes close to 100%. I realise this is largely a function of the market >place. I personally believe that the music industry has been exploiting CD >customers in the UK with higher than necessary prices : the Kate Bush Boxed >Set continues this practice. I have seen UK manufactured discs sell for under >$12 in the USA at full retail price whereas in the UK they sell for #12. The >difference is clearly not related to production or shipping costs. The only >justification for such prices is because it is what the market will bare. I >personally believe consumers deserve more respect. Well, I know what he's going to say about the U.S. prices anyhow. It is illegal under the anti-trust laws for a manufacturer to set the retail prices for its products. So the retailer is free to set whatever price he can get away with. Manufacturers try to get around this in various ways, the primary one being the printing of a "Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price" on the package. So EMI has no control over the price in the U.S.. In other countries they probably do. You also say, "The only justification for such prices is because it is what the market will bare. I personally believe that consumers deserve more respect." I wonder what alternative to the free market system you are proposing? If you were EMI, or an owner of a record store, what policy would you use to price the box set? Would you sell them for $125 when you could sell just as many for $175? -andy
Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU (12/21/90)
Really-From: Lazlo Nibble <lazlo@triton.unm.edu> Derek Langford wrote: > I have been curious about CDs which come in different versions in > the US and elsewhere. Importers rarely touch stuff which has precisely > the same song selection (parallel import restrictions) yet they deal with > import CDs of the same album if they have extra tracks on them compared to > the US release. They flout the regulations then. This would seem to > apply to the boxed set where the b-sides discs are not available in the US > otherwise on CD. > > If the situation is related to copyright of an artist rather than specific > songs I am not sure I understand why these importers have a double standard. The "double standard" is a simple matter of economics -- if the exact same CD is available in the US, why in the world would anyone pay $5-7 more for a UK import? I've seen it happen quite often that an album will be put out in the UK, US importers will bring copies of the album into the States, the album will sell for awhile, and then suddenly the album will come out over *here* and all those expensive import copies will sit on the shelves until forever. There are often sonic differences between the US and UK (and Japan and German and so on and so forth) pressings of a disc . . . but the average fan isn't quite as concerned -- or aware -- of those issues are they are of the neat feeling of getting an import pressing with stuff that's not on CD in the States. I suppose that if the import regulations weren't in place you'd see a lot more crosstalk about the relative sonic merits of one country's pressing over another but it's so much work to even get your hands on UK-only discs over here that most of us expend most of our energy on the things that we just plain can't find in the US, instead of worrying about whether the UK version of the current Beloved album sounds better than the US version does. Lazlo (lazlo@triton.unm.edu) ^^^^^^ --- Note new address. Mail to hydra.unm.edu will be forwarded indefinitely but service to triton is more reliable. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is too loud for *conservative* ears!