Universal Music Canada announced today they're instituting a $14.98 maximum suggested list price on all its top line CDs and a $9.99 price tag for developing new artists. It seems somebody at Universal finally woke up and realized high retail prices have been driving today's youth towards person to person file sharing networks for the past half-decade.
Lower prices is a start, but I say it's too little, too late. CDs have been grossly over-priced for far too long. Today's typical music lover prefers to download 80 minutes of solid tunage via the Internet to burn on an 80 cent CD over shelling out $20 for the three singles he/she really wants.
I suggest all record labels unite and begin selling individual songs over the Internet for no more than 99 cents a song. I want a website for one-stop-shopping. I log in, build my customized CD with the songs I want, pay via credit card and choose to access the MP3s or have the CD pressed and shipped to me for a reasonable surcharge. In 2003, this is the only way to go.
