I was one of the early-adopters of CD's in the mid 80's, back when the CD rack (yes, one SMALL rack) was dwarfed by vinyl and cassettes. $10.99 was the highest price for a single CD and most were $8.99 and $9.99. That was kind of high for the day, but then there were only 2 or 3 places in the country could make CD's. But the quality was much better than the alternatives, so I payed it. Now it costs pennies to make and package one, and they charge twice as much.
When CD's started costing me $16, $17 and $18 I quit buying them. I bought quite a few of the 3" CD's because I wasn't going to spend close to $20 for one good song and 10 tracks of over-produced crap, but the small CD's are hard to find for the music I want. I do download and burn my own CD's, but it's almost exclusively older stuff that I baught on cassette years ago and have since worn-out.
I'll still buy an occasional CD...but it has to be a damn good CD for what the industry is charging. Napster and all of it's bastard step-children have the potential to really revolutionize the distribution end of music. Keep the charge per track reasonable and everyone wins. The consumer gets just the music they want at a fair price without paying for pretty packaging and retail mark-ups, and the industry can completely eliminate the money they spend on cranking out the CD's, packaging them, shipping, loss to defects and damage in transit...we're talking about a lot of money!
Actually it will go even further than that.
Consider these factors: Back in the fifties we had the boom of post-war manufaturing that produced Televisions and radios in previously unheard of numbers.
Then new technologies in radio broadcasting and recording as well as distribution gave us cheap yet quality recording formats (Lps and 45s with stereo playback)
Then the market was new and fresh and anyone with any talent at all could get a record made since there was a huge vacum to fill thus you get Elvis, the Beatles, the British invasion, the motown sound, etc.
Flashforward to the Eighties and MTV and CDs, Digital technology cheaper to make and a new way to get your music heard. This is why Cindi Lauper, Men at Work, Duran Duran, Madonna, Bon Jovi, Def Leps, etc. became stars not because of the Music but because of the VIDEO!
New Format and new technolgy begets new wave of music.
Now we have the Internet and Broadband is growing.
Mad Dawgg's prediciton is the Next big wave in music will be the internet format but sans the "Recording Industry." We will see a new style of music that is totaly created on a PC with a visual display as well and (this is the cool part) there will be no hard copy save for those who burn it to CD in their homes!
And, the Artist will recieve any and all profits by paying him directly for the download.
The CD/Music industry is Dead and they (The music industry moguls) know it.
The same will happen to the DVD/Movie industry!