Boston Globe (pdf):
But Hilary Rosen, chief executive officer of the RIAA, said that it’s unfair to expect record companies to cut costs. She says people who steal music by downloading soundfiles or burning discs illegally are responsible for sales drops.
"In the age of $150 sneakers, $12 movie prices and $40 video games, I’m just unsympathetic," Rosen says. "At any price in the $10 to $18 range, CDs are a great value."
There’s so much money and technology going into the production of current movies and video games, that the comparison with CDs (products that hardly evolved in two decades), is nothing short of ridiculous. I won’t even mention the sneaker comparison which is past ridiculous. Get this, consumers tell you where the value is by not buying the product anymore. It’s not happening any faster just because of low broadband penetration and inertia.
Common user scenario: a family goes vacationing for a week, travels by car, and enjoys doing so with music (the one they like, not radio garbage). Total car trip time will be about 15 hours (roundtrip between home and holiday place plus local travels while on the spot). Choosing 20 CDs from your collection and carrying them around is just not convenient, considering all the kid gear you already must travel with. At any price above $0, album CDs are worthless, just because they’re obsolete.
Talk about the RIAA not getting who’s on the right side of the stick. We’re simply driving you guys into either bankruptcy or a major mending of your ways. The fact that your "just unsympathetic" didn’t escape anyone by the way (if you told us "I’m not very bright", we wouldn’t have contradicted you either). You’d better stop being in the telegraph business and start being in the communication business soon.
09/12/02 update: Dan Bricklin: The Recording Industry is Trying to Kill the Goose That Lays the Golden Egg.
09/16/02 update: great interview (in French) of Patrick Zelnick, a label owner well known in France (he used to be at the head of Virgin France).