David RD Gratton: More Bad News For CD Prices

It wasn't that long ago when new CD released were $20.00 and the discount baragain bin CDs with abysmal one page liner notes were $11.00. Now one of our industry's biggest stars is selling their new CD for $11.00!

Media: 7" Eva-Tone Soundsheet
Catalog: Eva-Tone 104540-1S
Credits: National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation
Date: 1988

MP3: Rappin' With Gas (3:53)

Courtesy of Beware of the Blog and via fistfulayen.

Lefsetz Letter >> Blog Archive >> Some E-Mail

Music is no longer a product. Peer-to-peer file sharing has virtually made CDs for people of my generation pointless. Now it is about the experience. If my friend or a blog I read says that I should hear a song. It is no longer about going to the record store to find the track it is about the fastest and easiest way to hear it. I don't care about what the CD case looks like I want to hear the song, the music.

I don't agree with that commenter's feeling that file sharing is the only way to go from here, but I do agree that the sense of songs as a product is fading away. Is it a service now? A subscription model? A personal interaction? A brand identification? I don't know what the new way is, I just know what it isn't.