[jenny65]

The stuff is over priced. DVDs have dropped to the level of VHS because that is what the market demands. No artist should get any more for an album than a writer gets for a book.

We could start a whole new topic on book prices too. Remember when a paperback novel was less than a dollar and a hardback was five or six, ten at most?

I don't have the exact figures, but as I recall, book authors and musical artists make less than a dollar from each copy sold. After manufacturing, marketing and distribution, it's the media companies that get the biggest share of the pot. With what little they do make from CD sales, most recording artists are forced to tour just to make money. Authors usually don't have that option.

Free enterprise in action. (I'm not bashing the system. That's just the reality of it)

[SauronOfMordor]

I don't have the exact figures, but as I recall, book authors and musical artists make less than a dollar from each copy sold. After manufacturing, marketing and distribution, it's the media companies that get the biggest share of the pot. With what little they do make from CD sales, most recording artists are forced to tour just to make money.

This would create an incentive for new groups to say "to hell with signing with a record label". Just put their stuff up on Napster, or their own web site. Put up samples for free, put up CD for sale, price the CD dirt cheap since the label and the music store aren't getting a cut, and use their recorded music as a draw for their touring performances

Soon, the record labels would go bust. This is what really worries them about file-sharing

[RobbyS]

What I am talking about is the "star" system, which guarantees certain performers money that their work has not yet earned. It is part of the hype.