Thursday , March 28 2024

Tower Tumbling

Note what I wrote here yesterday about the price of CDs:

    File-swapping and the rise of DVDs have combined to expose the outrageous rip that are retail CD prices – people will buy more if they think they are getting a good deal: paying more for the soundtrack than the DVD is not what the consumer considers a good deal. Cut the retail price in half and we’ll talk.

Some retailers are doing just that:

    Discounters such as Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Target are luring music buyers by slashing album prices — by half, in some cases. They use CD fire sales to get customers through the door, where they’ll be exposed to big-ticket items such as stereos, computers and televisions.

    ”Big-box retailers are using music to drive traffic,” said Colin McGranahan, retail analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York.

    ”It’s what grocery stores used to do. You would go in to pick up milk and leave with a steak,” McGranahan said. ”Except here you go in for the new Britney Spears and you end up with a $1,700 refrigerator.” [The Tennessean]

Of course the problem here is that music-based retailers like Tower can’t afford to seel their primary product at a loss: the wholesale price they pay has to be cut in half for this to work. That’s up to the labels.

About Eric Olsen

Career media professional and serial entrepreneur Eric Olsen flung himself into the paranormal world in 2012, creating the America's Most Haunted brand and co-authoring the award-winning America's Most Haunted book, published by Berkley/Penguin in Sept, 2014. Olsen is co-host of the nationally syndicated broadcast and Internet radio talk show After Hours AM; his entertaining and informative America's Most Haunted website and social media outlets are must-reads: Twitter@amhaunted, Facebook.com/amhaunted, Pinterest America's Most Haunted. Olsen is also guitarist/singer for popular and wildly eclectic Cleveland cover band The Props.

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