cygweb

I heard this on NPR's Marketplace on the way in to work today and it was covered on Slashdot as well. Universal is saying that their suggested retail prices (SRPs) on single-CD albums will be reduced from as high as $18.98 to an average of $12.98. This is what the music distribution industry has needed to do for at least 3 years. I really don't know how much effect this will have on retailers who already sell CD's at aggressive prices (Amazon, Best Buy, Target, etc.) because the article has no info as to how much wholesale prices are going down. I suspect wholesale prices are going down by $1-$1.50 and this is a way for UMG (ed. from "UMD") to tell the more "boutique" retailers to cut their margins. I don't know about you, but I've never been tempted to buy a CD from a place like Borders, who apparently prices all their CDs at MSRP.

I'll believe things have changed when I can find new releases for $10 or less.

Update: A Wired article on the subject purports that UMG's average wholesale price is going from $12.02 to $9.09. So perhaps we will see CDs for $10 or less soon.