here in spore, you could get a new release album for S19 and single S10. I guess half of that price is a fair, so its between 5-10 euros

I buy around 4 cd a month

I'd say $10/ CD would be good now. I remember back in the day when i'd take my weekly allowance of $5 and go buy two vynils. Now granted, it wasn't 8 vynils a month, but when i did go buying, i was always able to get 2. $2 or $2.50 (which is US dollars of the early 60's...). But 10 Euros (AKA 10-11 US dollars) would be nice. I can find some at that price at backdoor stores, but it's rare these days.

Where money from the CD sale goes to. They almost need to cost at least $16.00 for artists to make any money with the current record contract.

$16.00- 25% for packaging costs(goes to label)= 12.00

lets say album goes gold (500,000 copies)

Net sales (in contract: only use 85% of units shipped )= 425,000
base rate per CD= 9% = $1.08
_______
gross royalties earned= $459,000
reserve 35% in escrow for returned and damaged CDs (160,650)
_________
net earned by artist 298,350
Recoupables (from advancements)
recording advancement from label (200,000)
Video costs (pay back 50% from $100,000 video) (50,000)
promotion advance from label (pay back 50%) (50,000)
_________
net DUE artist $1,650

so the artist is in dept, and that didn't even recoup the producer, manager, etc. fees

until record labels stop screwing over the artists, the prices will always be high

The artist is in debt? Sure, perhaps an emerging artist goes into debt... that's why they get contract deals for multiple records usually. But always remember, if you're getting promotions from your label, and advances on your work, then you're never really in debt - what you are is a bad manager of money. I agree, the record labels screw artists pretty hard - they take far more than they need, and give far less than they should. But artists, at least those I've known to do any amount of recording personally (say, Static-X), come out very nicely in the end if they (a) know what they're doing, and (b) know how to manage the fronts they get.

So, what's the right amount to charge for a CD? Whatever recouperates the cost for the label, pays the artist fairly, and that the consumer can still afford. The economy, especially capitalistic abusers (AKA, the U.S.), doesn't really allow for fair pricing to be established in the end. But what I'd like to see as the price for a CD, knowing everyone in the "musical food chain" has to eat, is about 10-15 euros. But, simply put, the market will always be driven by the labels, and how much money is out there. I'll just keep downloading music until they can fix their own problems...

some of the albums can be extremely expensive.( like the new release by " asian dub foundation")
but if u join (britiania!? is it called in that way..... anyway, something like that), u can get the cds at a lower price.

Also, don't forget that a band gets money for gigs on top of album sales and a record contract. The album sales are just a bonus really and are just improving their next contract and amount for a gig.

I think bands get more like 50 cents an album anyway.

I think that, reasonably, CDs should hover around the 8-Euro/10-Dollar region. Then, DVDs could go for 16-Euros/20-Dollars, what with having twice the length of a CD with audio and visual content.

I'll repeat what Evilmatik said a long time ago that CDs running $20 a piece is pretty rediculous, which is the norm for most physical CD shops.

Here, new CDs cost around 20€ ( 160 norwegian crowns ) but I'll rarely buy a CD if it costs more than 15€ ( 120 norwegian crowns ). This is why I rarely buy CDs, and if I buy, it's mostly online ( even with the shipping it's cheaper than buying them in the store ).

If the poll question was "what is the maximum you'll pay for a CD" I would vote 10-15 euros, but since it is "what should a CD cost" I'll vote for 5-10.

5-10 U.S. Dollars

I'd buy TONS more CDs if they were around 5$.

15-20 is too much.