The cost of a CD in your country

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 7:17 pm

I think it'd be interesting to know how much people pay for a CD album in various countries (in US dollars). Both the 'discount' CDs and also new releases. That could help all of us tune anything we might sell online to the world market ?

In Australia CDs range from A$10 (discount) to A$30 (new release). That's about US$8 to US$24.

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 12:10 am

Well that's not going to work i don't think. The US$ is so weak against the UK£ at the momentthat a full price £16.99 CD (which i refuse to buy - i always check the cheapo shops first) would be about US$33-35. That's why i'm buying loads of CDs from the USA at the moment

At the lower end a £9.99 CD would be $19-20, yet if you look online full price US CDs are $17.99 which would only be just under a tenner.

Mr A

[ This Message was edited by: Mr Arkadin on 2005-04-20 01:14 ]

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 1:05 am

In France it's around 17€ for high price,

or 7-9€ for low price

spoimala · Post by **spoimala** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 2:56 am

Yeah, I also critize using floating USD as a reference

In Finland, new releases are 20EUR (+/- 2 EURs). MidPrice 14/15EUR, cheapos ~10.

And supermarket trash ~5EUR.

alfonso · Post by **alfonso** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 3:00 am

In Italy same as Finland.

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 4:34 am

On 2005-04-20 03:56, spoimala wrote:
Yeah, I also critize using floating USD as a reference

I had, of course, meant to write in my original post "...or the world's other great currency, the Euro."

spacef · Post by **spacef** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 6:15 am

Marcuspocus, long time you haven't been at the FNAC ???

mid price is 17.50 euros (laurent garnier!! too expensive man!!) and 20 euros or more for big budget productions (angunn=20 euros, scandalous).
9.99 for the cheapest (even from major companies).
A friend is trying to release a CD for 5 euros !!

[ This Message was edited by: spacef on 2005-04-20 07:17 ]

Post by **hubird** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 6:51 am

Like Finland, Itali

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 7:35 am

New releases in Chile are ranging from 20 to $30 (American dollars).

Then you'll find different prices, as low as $1 or $2.

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 9:27 am

about 10 to 20 euro's here in Belgium.

note: It's weird comparing prices amongst countries - for example the UK has a total different tax system than Belgium: UK pays high tax in the shops, a countermeasure to the blackwork in the 80ies, while we pay tax most on our income. In the end we buy the same for our money, but retail prices are incomparable.

Zer · Post by **Zer** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 10:20 am

I wonder what kind of cds you are buying?

In germany you can get smart editions for about 12 bucks (that means a bad cover and mostly disscount cds) . If you are not into pop the price raises to 17 ~ 40 bucks (Euros) depending on the cd (double cd or else).
Some genres ar bit cheaper but hard to find. If you are into ebm or industrial you are able to get some cool cd for about 8 ~ 10 bucks - what is real a bargain sometimes becuase you´ll get a cool cover and a cool cd.

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 6:02 pm

new releases over here (holland) are between 20 and 23 Euro's. Very expensive (partly because of the 19% VAT).
Bargain stuff is usually around 8-10 Euro's. (although the real crappy stuff can be anything from 1 to 5 euros)
I never buy full price cd's, and actually buy most of my cd's from the US via Amazon or Ebay. Much much cheaper with the low dollar and you can often get like new or even still sealed cd's for a few bucks which translates to even fewer euros.

I love getting cd's in the mail too, because you never know exactly when it will arrive so it's always a kind of surprise

It's pretty ridiculous that cd prices, trough all the time cd's have existed have never come down even though they must have become much cheaper to manufacture as it became the dominant standard. Then there's the fact that many very old releases continue to be sold for full price.

Also, DVD's seem to be significantly cheaper than cd's! Special Edition (two disc) dvd's of the latest movies are often the same price as a new (one cd) album.

[ This Message was edited by: King of Snake on 2005-04-20 19:09 ]

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 6:38 pm

In Chile VAT is also 19%

If you think that an average worker takes about $220 (American dollars), to spend 20 or 25 dollars for a CD is very expensive too.

emzee · Post by **emzee** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 6:45 pm

Manufacturing prices are minimal, for many products about 10% of retail... Markups are where it's at. Distributors/shops need to cover overheads and make a profit. And they need good access to the market to make a profit.

"Money makes the vorld go round....the vorld go round...."

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 8:02 pm

Nestor, most interesting. If you consider that a CD in Chile is roughly 10% of the wage, that makes them incredibly expensive.

But the price also happens to be roughly what it is in "richer" nations of EU / Aus / US. That would usually indicate an item has an "absolute" cost that can't be much changed for local conditions. But that's not soi true with CDs surely ?

I know some CD places which will press your CD on demand in dribs and drabs and post it anywhere in the world for US$10. So even in this extremely expensive low-run scenario, that leaves a big profit margin.

emzee · Post by **emzee** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 10:15 pm

I think it's been said before .. you should be able to produce a CD inc label and cover, in small quantities for about $2. (Not including content). Useful info here

http://www.digido.com/portal/pmodule_id ... age_id=63/

Of course, if you're using a CD production service to distribute single copies as well, they have to charge a decent price or they'll go bust. Take out the mail costs...what's left?

I think Janis Ian mentioned on her site that singer/songwriters can spend 4 days just doing admin type stuff if they do it all themself. Great site, great writing. Read the aticles.

http://www.janisian.com/

Edit: My dang signature has disappeared again....Mikka

[ This Message was edited by: emzee on 2005-04-20 23:18 ]

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 10:42 pm

On 2005-04-20 21:02, Spirit wrote:
Nestor, most interesting. If you consider that a CD in Chile is roughly 10% of the wage, that makes them incredibly expensive.

Now think about somebody buying an SCOPE board in here...

: Same expression...

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 8:43 am

just to illustrate:

I just bought Way Out West's latest album (Don't Look Now) which is a pretty recent release (end of 2004) and would surely still cost over 20 Euro's in the shop over here (if you could find it at all).
I bought it for a grand total $10.26 which equates to about 7.80 Euro including shipping from the US. It arrived about 4 days after payment too. What the hell do we need record shops for anymore eh?