Now i was part of a Music Retail store for basically 17 years till we closed up shop, but the thing that always got me was how people thought a store dictated a PRICE, wow u have never been so wrong. Just yesterday I bought PLANET EARTH at a local small cd store in NYC that sells new and used cds, and guess how much new cds are in that store, 14-16.99. Now the guy that works there has seen me a million times and we talk the "business" at times and i was curious since the PLANET EARTH cd was selling for 16.99, i asked him if they got the Cds from the label and he said "Yes, direct From Sony" and then i was still curious and i asked what was Sony charging a store nowadays, he showed me the packling list, and for this cd it was 14.75 per disc!!! Folks when i left Sam Goody back in 2006, about 14 months ago, the highest i ever saw charged was 13.10, that means they have raised there prices 1.65 in just over a year to stores. Now i guess you wonder why the store was selling a 14.75 CD for 16.99, well the average person would say Greed, but use your head, if you own and run a store, how do you think you keep the lights on, how do you think you have an employee or two. So all you Best Buy/Walmart heads out there, you will soon see that 9.99/10.99 start to morph into that 11.99-13.99 Price, and then you will soon see CDs and space for Cd's vanish in those stores, but now you know WHY!!

Yup.

I knew from when I worked at HMV:

sometimes the new releases or high chart CDs would sell AT COST

just to get people in the door and hopefully buy a catalog album

(older albums that people do not expect to be on sale anyway).



[Edited 7/21/07 10:55am]

Cinnie said:

Yeah people think things are really done by magic, sure prices are high, but its a stores choice, especially stores that only sell MUSIC. So when you go to Best Buy and they charge 9 or 10 bucks, YES they are losing almost 3-4 dollars a disc folks, THEY ARE, but they dont care right now because you are spending way more for the other shit they sell that they mark up. So for those of you who shopped in TOWER or GOODY in the last years, you may have noticed them selling candy and soda at the check out counters and you must have thought WHY?? Well that was to make up all the extra money they were losing. You see when Tower or Goody would put a cd on sale for 11-12 dollars they were still losing money, thats why they only ran the sales a short time, i mean if a store that only sells music is losing 1-2 dollars per cd, how can they exist, well U see the answer to that now.

lastdecember said:

exactly. they can't.

i am seeing more "lifestyle" stores that sell CDs AND CLOTHING

Is it possible that "big box" stores get the CD's from the labels at a better price, due to volume? And what about Amazon?

I know they all sell other stuff, but I find it hard to believe they're taking that much of a loss on CD's. (What about DVD's and games?)

I could be wrong, but it just doesn't seem realistic.

the labels in their greed put out the retail chains. biting the hand that feeds it.

umm..how the hell did you buy Planet Earth a week before its release?

Local shops here in NYC, mom and pop types, get their new releases the Friday before and they sell them then to get a jump on the Retail chains and their loyal customers, since they cant afford to charge the "big box" store prices, they really need to sell whatever they order right away. And yes it counts towards SOUNDSCAN, which is why i tell people, soundscan is less about actual sales, and more about SALES TO THE STORES! Thats how its done.

CandaceS said:

Amazon loses money on the actual cd, but makes it up with P&H and their frequent buyer clubs and also Amazon makes tons of money off their other items that they sell, especially books! And not to forget the people that sell USED stuff on Amazon have to pay Amazon commission fees, so thats FREE money to amazon.

You mention Video Games, im not sure many people know this but, there is actually a deal between Game companies and stores, NO game store is allowed to sell a game cheaper than another, thats why you never see a new Video game cheaper at Best Buy than at a Game Stop, mainly because its against the agreement, and if someone sells it cheaper and they are caught, well they wont be getting anymore games from the company. This is what should have happend with CDs, and it was discussed but never did. The fact that a store can sell a cd 3-5 dollars below cost drove the real Music Retailers out, and like its been said before, it was all the labels doing. The fact is if there was a set price for a cd everywhere, labels would have to lower their prices when they charge a store but the labels Greed cancelled that out.

Big Box stores do lose money on their new releases everyday and every sale. This is why U see that little * in your best buy flyer, its next to every new release, it states that you cannot buy more than 3 copies of one CD in the store, U know why? because other music retailers like FYE or GOODY would just go into best buy and buy 25 copies of the new PRINCE for 10 dollars instead of getting it from the label for 13-14 dollars. Because if that happend then Labels would lose tons of money because other retailers and stores wouldnt have to get shit from them they could just buy bulk from Best Buy and sell it in their own store.
[Edited 7/22/07 10:58am]

lastdecember said:

hollllly schitt

Cinnie said:

Yeah thats why you get that * in the Best Buy flyers, they will not let you buy more than 3 of the same cd because every other retailer who was getting killed would just go in their and buy all their shit up. That * deal is a deal between labels and Big Box stores to keep them from losing tons of money on cds.

lastdecember said:

just get everything online(itunes,sharing,yada yada yada) like most ppl lol
.
.
[Edited 7/22/07 12:55pm]

Christopher said:

Online bores the shit out of me, i have an ipod and i have used iTunes about 3 times in 3 years. oh and get ready for a raise in the iTunes prices and u will be seeing less and less of the 99 cent offers to.