the way the music died [home]  homewatch onlineartistsperfect
stormdiscussion  Frequently Asked Questions by Mike Wiser Why
are CDs so expensive? How does an artist get a song on the
radio? Has record label consolidation affected artist
development? Here are the answers to these and other frequently
asked questions about the music industry.  Why do CDs cost so
much?  When they were first introduced in the early 1980s,
compact discs cost about $14 or $15 -- almost twice as much as a
tape or LP version of the same music. Record companies claimed
that the higher prices were justified because the new discs were
more durable and provided higher sound quality. The industry
also argued that the high cost was partly due to the need to
build new facilities to produce the digital discs and that
prices would eventually fall. One 1987 Washington Post article
reported that record executives believed that the price of a CD
would eventually settle around $10.  Twenty years later,
production costs have come down, but consume