GG: Re: Kunst ist tot?

[Reinout Dekhuijzen <reinout@pobox.COM>]

Hello everybody,

I was surprised to read that (certain) US music stores are downsizing their 
classical CD collections, referring to Europe as the Walhalla for the classical 
music lover. Let me give a view from the other side of the Atlantic.

In continental Europe CD prices are significantly higher than in the 
UK or the US. For example here in the Netherlands the traditional labels 
like Deutsche Grammophone, Philips and Sony charge more than twice as 
much, nearly US$30, a fullprice classical CD. The situation in France 
and Germany is much the same.

The reason for this is the fact that the music industry fixes the 
prices; retailers that offer CDs at lower prices are not supplied, and 
stores that import their own CDs (from the US instead of via the 
'official' suppliers) are sewed in court succesfully. Last year they 
even claimed that ordering CDs over the internet is illegal.

The industry defends this strategy by pointing out that they need the 
higher prices to support the large stock of CDs that are hardly sold. 
Lowering prices would mean that only the most popular titles would 
remain in print.

At first sight they seem to have a point. If competition would not be 
reduced, prices would be much closer to competitive levels, thus 
lowering the return. But when I visited the US last year I was 
surprised to find that the average music store in US offers 
about twice the number of titles that a European CD store has in 
stock, at prices that are 50% lower. Apparantly, low prices are no 
direct threat to the variety of CDs that are offered.

In fact the music industry in Europe successfully reduced competition in 
the CD market in continental Europe, and there is no evidence that the 
prices ought to be that high in order to support a large collection.

Reading about the current situation in the US, I think it is the 
not the competition or the low prices that is a threat to classical 
music, but low demand. Perhaps the music industry would do wiser to 
focus their attention to promoting classical music (with the effect 
of increasing demand) than protecting the high prices (lowering demand). 


Reinout.

reinout@pobox.com

Oranjesingel 12
NL-6511 NT Nijmegen
THE NETHERLANDS