Just saw this over at Breaking Windows: Wal-Mart wants to pull a Robin Hood on the recording industry to get CD prices down to a more reasonable consumer cost of $9.72. They are doing this so they won’t have to lose money doing it on their own says the article in RollingStone.com:

Less-expensive CDs are something consumers have been demanding for years. But here’s the hitch: Wal-Mart is tired of losing money on cheap CDs. It wants to keep selling them for less than $10 — $9.72, to be exact — but it wants the record industry to lower the prices at which it purchases them. Last winter, Wal-Mart asked the industry to supply it with choice albums — from new releases from alternative rockers the Killers to perennial classics such as Beatles 1 — at favorable prices. According to music-industry sources, Wal-Mart executives hinted that they could reduce Wal-Mart’s CD stock and replace it with more lucrative DVDs and video games.

The only bad thing I can see about lower CD prices is less money to the artists. They already get screwed and less money will mean it’s them getting pinched for the majority of this savings which I think is totally wrong. The artists should share at least equally in the profits. It’s their content, after all. Even sadder are places like iTunes are selling albums for $9.99 … convenience of not burning the gas to drive to Wal-Mart isn’t worth convenience of being able to buy the CD in the retail store, burn it into any format I desire and listen on any device I want. Online albums should be at least half the price of retail store CDs because the distribution costs there are greatly reduced. Will we ever see $5 CDs that aren’t being moved in bargain bins?

• 12/12/07 Last day to get $10.99 a CD at Borders (limit 3)
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