This is worth reading as a good little article showing the futility of copy protection.

The record industry could lose a fortune if people stop buying CDs and make their own copies. Halderman reckons he has a solution for them. "Reduce the cost of new CDs; if discs cost only a few dollars each, buying them might be preferable to spending the time and effort to make copies or find them online."


Close, but misses the mark.

As long as the record industry is driven by the business model of producing, transporting, and selling a hard piece of merchandise (i.e., CD) they will not be able to reduce their costs to the point where people will buy the music instead of downloading it.

They will have to (and certainly will) start selling the music in electronic form over the internet. Think what their percentage profit would be on the sale of an "album" sold as an internet download for $3, compared to a CD sold for $15.

Whether making the music available at such a bargain price would curb piracy... that I can't answer. But I know a lot of people don't feel guilty about stealing music from a $15 CD, on the premise that the record companies are ripping them off; perhaps they would be willing to pay a more reasonable price.

tanstaafl.

I would 100% rather buy a CD than download it. My time is worth over $20/hour and even when I was at the peak of my MP3 hunting skill, I could never get a single CD in one hour. And if the CD is something slightly off the beaten mainstream path, I could look for days before finding it.

Thus, it IS easier to simply buy the CD. Of course, I still prefer to buy my CD's only at folk music concerts where I can hand the money directly to the artist. That always gives me a good feeling.

I agree. I only buy CDs now since discovering half.com. Whether is be used or a promo, I get the CD from anywhere between $3-$7. If new CDs were available for around $10, I would buy those.

And, for me, it's not a time issue. Now that I have a couple quality MP3 playback devices, downloads just don't cut it anymore.

Totally agree with that.
With the current obscure prices it is not funny anymore. Also I prefer having a original having the cover and branded (printed) CD. Just see it a a collection. Ok one can do that too by downloading the covers, but I've bad experience with putting a printed sticker on a CD.
The prices here (Netherlands) for a new 1-CD: 22 Euro.

Kuch... and those copy-protection idea's... when do they learn that doesn't solve anything.

Cheers
EiSl