HMV Canada Lowering Prices To Entice Buyers

[Rob Williams]

From our news:

Popular music retailer HMV has decided to lower the prices on their entire selection in Canada in order to entice buyers to... buy. Let's face it... no one wants to pay upwards of $18 (or more) for a CD unless you are major fan of the band. Hilarity ensues if you want to purchase an older album, which normally start at $25. As a result of these price drops, older titles will be priced up to 33% lower, while the rest of the selection, including new releases, will drop 20%.

The CRIA (Canuck version of the RIAA) blames this move as a result to piracy. Oh really? Is it really surprising that people don't want to shell out a crisp $20 for a new release? Being a Canuck and a regular HMV shopper, I'm pleased to hear about the price drops, especially on the older releases. Whether or not this move makes much of a difference is yet to be seen, but I'm hoping it will.

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"Canada has the highest rate of illegal downloading in the world," he told CBC News. "It's affecting our ability to build a digital industry." Other countries, including the U.S. and Britain, have been able to stem the tide of illegal downloading by updating laws and increasing enforcement, he said, but calls from the recording industry for updated copyright laws in Canada have gone unheeded.

Source: CBC News
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[madmat]

Yep, like I want to spend 2 hours of my labor (I make $10 an hour) to buy some crappy CD that has maybe 2 songs on it I want and a bunch of garbage best left unrecorded.

 

[Rob Williams]

That's why I download half of what I buy first, in order to see if it's actually worthwhile or not. Over 90% of my music collection is because of music I've sampled first, bought later. Normally if it's a band I like anyway, I'll buy it without hearing first, only because there's good chances that I will not be let down.