Universal fights against downloading Cuts CD prices
CRAIG WONG Canadian Press
Thursday, September 04, 2003
TORONTO (CP) - Universal Music Canada is cutting the wholesale and suggested list prices on CD albums in an effort to win back Internet downloaders who have complained about retail prices.
"The consumer has spoken to us that music -- in the research that we've done -- has been fairly high-priced and, therefore, they've been feeling fairly guilt-free about procuring music for free," Randy Lennox, CEO of Universal Music Canada, said Wednesday.
"Without this, the business would flat-line at best because the competitive nature of entertainment products is growing. . . . We feel that this is an absolute necessity."
Universal, home to Canadian artists Shania Twain, Remy Shand and the Tragically Hip, will institute a $14.98 maximum suggested list price on virtually all of its top-line CDs, and a $9.99 price tag for developing new artists.
In the United States, Universal Music Group said it would cut the suggested sale price on a majority of its CDs by $6 US to $12.98 US.
The company also plans to cut wholesale prices on its cassettes and change the suggested retail price to $8.98 US.
Lennox said the music giant will also start offering music downloads in Canada in October from 99 cents a song and $9.99 per album.
"All of our research says even the guys that were taking it for free are saying, 'You know what? For 99 cents a song, I'm in. At least the record companies aren't gouging me here,' " Lennox said.
Apple Computer's ITunes service offers Web downloads for 99 cents US a song and $9.99 US for most full albums in the United States.
The Canadian Record Industry Association says annual sales are down 20 per cent over the last three years. The industry has launched a cross-country anti-piracy campaign urging consumers not to share music files because it is illegal and damaging to the record industry.
In the United States, the recording industry has taken a harder line - filing lawsuits against individual users who share and download copyrighted files over the Internet.
Last year, Universal Music Canada removed a series of deductions the record label was entitled to take from royalties paid to artists for downloads.
The new contract puts downloaded songs in the same payment category as albums, giving artists a 25 per cent higher intake. It also removes a clause that would have permitted the label to charge artists packaging and tech-format fees amounting to about 45 per cent.
-I'm not a huge Universal fan, but hopefully other companies will follow.
It still won't matter until bands start putting out quality music.
See, it's like this. I don't care much for The Used, but other people do. And I read through that thread, and Bort (I think) said he bought the album and only like three songs off of it.
That is the problem with the music industry. Bands strive to make three good songs that people will get into, then let the rest of the album go to shit. That is why people download music, because they're smart enough to realize that spending the proposed $12 is still not worth it for three songs.
That is also why shit like I-Tunes came out. It's bullshit that they charge $1 per song. They shouldn't be able to do this. I say that bands should take their time and put together quality work so people will actually buy the albums. That's why suing people on the internet for downloading music is asenine. It's not their fault they like two of a band's songs and thing the other 8-9 songs are complete shit. It's the band's fault for not putting out quality music. End of story.
I faced death. I went in with my arms swinging. But I heard my own breath and had to face that I'm still living. I'm still flesh. I hold on to awful feelings. I'm not dead... My chest still draws breath. I hold it. I'm buoyant. There's no end.
"When looking up there, I just felt whole, like I belonged. Like one day I too would shine my most brilliant. Sitting there also made me think about sitting through services at my little country church back home. About that never-changing congregation of the same sixty-seven people and everyone has known you since before you were born. Now, out here in the real world, everything just seemed more vivid than when I used to sit in that little pew. That pew that was now so, so far away from where I was. I feared I had somehow left God behind there, too. I feared he was somehow just sitting there, saving my seat on the fifth pew from the front row, just waiting on me to come back. I left so quickly, I worried that he may not have noticed I was gone. And, now, I’m just too far away to find. So he’s just sitting there, patiently waiting on me to come back. I closed my eyes and prayed a moment. I hoped more than anything that he could still hear me." -an excerpt from my novella, A Sea of Fallen Leaves.
