the 51st grammy awards

this years grammy awards: what did you think about this years show, winners, and performances?

we are being had (again)

I need to rant about this just a bit and then i'll be ok...

so I actually went to buy a CD today and was appalled at the price, and so i left the store to do a little research.  now in truth  it's been awhile since i bought a new CD from a store and i think the last one was at Best Buy on the release date so it was only $8.99 that day... everything else i've bought was used off ebay except for one album recently that was $5 for a whole 256kps mp3 album from amazon. 

so maybe i'm a bit of a jaded consumer but doesn't it seems like we are being totally ripped off when it comes to buying music?

i'll use the most recent counting crows CD as an example:

$10 amazon.com 256kbs mp3 download with no art/lyrics, etc

$14 + $3 shipping amazon.com for new CD with reduced packaging (read: no case)

$15 at Best Buy for CD with reduced packaging

$18 in B&N store for CD with cardboard sleeve (ahem: reduced package blah blah)

ok, artists really only get paid based on the amount of music they sell, right, so basic production and recording of albums is fairly consistient between artists and then marketing and pressing of the CD's i'm sure is not super cheap, but $15-$20 for a CD when I can buy 50 blank CD's for under $20?  given the benefit of doubt that it really does cost that much to make an album from start to finish where do they get off charging $10 for a download!?!?  and it would be $14 if I purchased it one track at a time on iTunes!??  wha?

if i remember, a download is an inferior quality version that contains no physical attributes, no case, no artwork, no lyrics.  I don't neccessarily want all that for every album i buy but i think we are getting ripped both ways now.  at least with a CD i can tell myself that i am getting the highest quality sound possible (a CD is 1400kbps while a mp3 is 128-256kbps) and at least with a CD i have an archival-quality, physical copy of something i bought and it will still be there if my hard drive/mp3 player craps out or comes down with a nasty virus.  but $20!?!? when we know it only costs them 25 cents for the CD, 25 cents for the liners, and 25 cents for the case.

somehow we have been convinced that despite massive increases in technology, a single song of lesser quality is worth $1 each on iTunes... that a physical copy of songs we purchased are not neccessary, and that it costs an artist $20 to produce an album.

/sigh... looks like i will be watching for more $3 deals on used CD's on ebay for all my future music purchases... sorry musicians

...and don't even get me started on what netflix and blockbuster are charging for less-than-DVD-quality movies for download... are we just that gullible these days or does quality not matter anymore in this throw-away world?

charter statement

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