“…Consumers are on pace to spend $11 billion on DVD sales and rentals this year, making it the fastest-growing home-electronic product ever. DVDs routinely make more money in their opening weekend than comparable theatrical releases. Video games aren’t far behind, with sales reaching $6.3 billion last year, nearly double what they were five years ago. The record biz, whose sales were off 10% last year, is in such bad shape that even Entertainment Weekly’s summer music issue was full of ads … for DVDs!
“So why are movies and video games booming while the music business, pop culture’s trend-setter of the past several decades, is in such a funk? The people who run record companies gloomily blame the Internet. But if you ask music and movie lovers, you get a very different answer. Consumers adore DVDs, which offer cool packaging and lots of interactive extras; they loathe CDs, which they say are grossly over-priced and padded with filler.
“Pocketbook issues have a lot to do with DVDs’ ascension. Two years ago, most new DVDs were priced between $25 and $30. Now new DVDs sell for $19.95, with hundreds of older movies going for $9.95 and $14.95. But even though music sales are down, the record companies aren’t cutting prices– in fact some CD prices have, if anything, gone up. New CDs by everyone from Britney Spears to System of a Down go for $17.99, with older CDs selling for $14 or $15. The only CDs that regularly sell for $9.99 or 11.99 are by little-known new artists. When I walked through Best Buy the other day, I was amazed to discover that the DVDs for “Austin Powers” and “Rush Hour” cost exactly the same as the movies’ CD soundtracks…
Click here to read the full L.A. Times/Calendar Live article.
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