DISQUS

Kevin · 1 year ago

I completely agree with you, Bob, and a quick assessment of my CD-buying habits of late confirms that the way to get me to buy a CD is to offer something else of value along with it. If all I'm getting are the songs and a so-so glossy booklet, I'll pass. Particularly when the music is cheaper and easier to get on Amazon or iTunes (Seeing $10 albums on "Sale" at Virgin makes me shake my head), and physical storage space is ever harder to come by.

The last CD I bought (and only one I can remember buying anytime in the last several years) was David Byrne's "The Knee Plays", which came with a DVD containing a phenomenal synchronized photo slide show (1 shot taken every 30 seconds) of Robert Wilson's performance work for which the music was originally written. Talk about worth it. Of course, this was preordered from Amazon...

Bob Caswell · 1 year ago

Good to know I'm not alone, Kevin. Another thing we have in common, interestingly enough, is that even when we've bought CDs, they were from Amazon. Take Amazon out of the picture, and the last time I bought a CD was probably about 7 years ago.

I guess I never want music so much (with the extra content) that I can't wait two days to get it (and if I really can't wait, I'm not going to the mall, I'd simply forgo the extra content and download instead).

Paul Ellis · 1 year ago

You know it is funny, I only recently started considering buying digital downloads (with and/or because of Amazon's DRM-free music store). I still like having the uncompressed source so that I can change formats. I'm probably an isolated case though as I still rip my music into Ogg Vorbis instead of MP3/WMA/AAC.

I did buy one disc that had a DVD with it too, and I have never watched the DVD. It doesn't do anything for me. Instead of including a DVD, they could include a code to get into a special website that had all of the same content, but then they wouldn't have to package it in for all of the people who will never watch them.

Bob Caswell · 1 year ago

Interesting, Paul. I wonder if a code for a "special content" site would be as appealing. It's just that I still value content coming on a DVD much more than watching the same stuff online.

I guess it's just that if the CD is $4 more, I'm not willing to pay that $4 for access to something on the Internet. But I will pay it for a DVD.

Paul Ellis · 1 year ago

Good point, on the web everything is supposed to be free (ugh...) so most people probably wouldn't value it as being worth anything at all. Funny enough though, that is how much/little the DVD is worth to me. I wouldn't pay much more for either.

John Riley · 1 year ago

I think CD's should be priced a lot lower to entice people to buy a disc with nothing more than music on it. My purchases of Concert DVDs and CD's remastered with DTS and Dolby Digital Surround have far exceed my purchases of regular music CDs. In fact I scour the used bins at my local record for most of them.

roycifer · 1 year ago

in the past i was always enticed by the extras (DVD). but i noticed the quality of content on these DVDs was usually pretty weak. the labels know that the simple inclusion of a DVD (regardless of quality) will help with sales. in the end, its just another desperate ploy by the industry. make the content worthy, then its worth caring about.