Let's Get Physical: The Real Price of CDs

For me, like many, if not most recording artists, my main source of income is selling my recordings. A lot of people look at a CD and question the price associated with it. They figure that since a blank CD-R they can buy at their local office supply store costs just pennies, so should an audio CD with an artist's music on it.

On it's face this thought is misguided. It is not the CD you are paying for, it is the music that is on it. So the cost of the CD does not reflect the price of an empty disc, but the months or years that go into the production of the music on the disc.

How can a price be put on that? The short answer is it can't. For me as a DIY artist I look at how much money I need to live on and what my competitors are charging. Then I make adjustments. Either to my price or my expenses.

So what goes into the price of a CD?

The Façade

When I first started my label one of the things that I wanted to do was to look as professional as possible. I knew I was competing with real labels and if it didn't have the same look then I would not be taken seriously.

This worked the way I hoped, but it also had consequences that I never expected. In trying to create the façade of a big record label many of my listeners figured that there was more to my little label than there is.

I can't tell you how many times people have confessed to me that they think that my label is located in a really big building---that I have a staff and of course am selling enough recordings to pay for all of this.

The truth is much different...

The Disconnect

This blog will, randomly, explore the disconnect between the music fan's perception of being a working musician and the reality. To look behind the façde at what it really takes to be a working, independent musician today in the new digital music age.

Some of this will be anecdotal, and subjective. Some will not.

The objective of this blog will be to inform music fans as to what is happening in the music industry today, the profound changes that are occurring, and how their actions can help, or hurt, the artists whose work they enjoy.