Salon.com is reporting about an independent music site called FightCloud.com, here you can order CD's for free. All you have to pay are 'shipping costs' (actual shipping cost + small fee) and for about 4.95$ you are the owner of a brand new legally owned CD.
The service is only available for US customers now and only features a small amount of artists. But from the fee you pay, half of it goes directly to the artist, it's a good initiative that only needs supports of big artists (but the change that happens is pretty small I guess)
At FightCloud.com, the price is right. Scalfani sells CDs for free. That is, if you don't count the $4.95 "shipping" charge. Of course, that would be a mistake. Buried in the shipping charge is the secret ingredient: a modest profit. Less costs of $2.31, the company nets $2.64 on each "free" disc, half of which goes to the artist. But with only 1,000 or so CDs shipped to date, no one's getting rich. Yet. |
In 2000, the average suggested list price of a CD was $14.02, according to the Recording Industry Association of American (RIAA). The CD itself costs about 32 cents in a large production run, according to Michael Pardo, V.P. of sales for CD duplicator Greenwood Solutions. Add packaging and the price goes to 54 cents. Add the cut for a new artist, somewhere between 10 and 50 cents, and your cost nears a buck. Add $28 million to cancel your estimated $80 to $100 million contract with Mariah Carey, as EMI recently did, and adjust your costs accordingly.
Scalfani recalls how, in the early 1980s, the music industry promised to lower prices after the CD format caught on. "Everybody remembers that," he says ruefully. "The federal government said they weren't going to tax us anymore after World War II. Yeah, right. It's all just empty promises."
It's an intresting idea, but the current record labels have probably too much control over 'their' artists to make this work. Read the entire story at Salon.com here.
Source: Salon.com
