Cost of CD's

[NickSpringfield]

Me and my friend just finished our first album, which is due out Thursday. We went out flyering the last few days trying to catch people's attention about it. We planned on selling the 13 track CD for $5. We figure that it isn't about the money really and as long as we break even, and even if we don't- we have a larger group of people listening to us, cuz $5 is nothing. But now I go around on boards like this and I see people with EP's with only 4-6 tracks selling for $10. If any of you have release anything locally, how much did you sell your first release.. and any more after that??

Thanks,
-Nick Springfield

[soundboy]

I can only speak as a consumer. If I see a cd for 5 bucks i would give it a try because after all whats 5 bucks but a 10 buck cd for a new group i have never heard of and don't knowmakes me want to hold onto my ten bucks. It has its pros and cons.

[arjanitor]

I'd have to agree. The only way I'd pay $10 for an unknown band, is if I saw them live and they kicked major ass! And by that I mean they took me out back, beat me up, and took my money.

But then again, I hang out with a lot of those silly punk/DIY-minded people who think charging more than $5 is some sort of cardinal law violation.

[stonepiano]

nick from NEPA,

five bucks... you got it right. I pay eight bucks a cd for bands i know and like so you're in the right ball park.

[stuckatwork]

I don't know Nick. I had this discussion a few weeks ago with my other band members and they seem to agree. I think giving your CD a higher precieved value is very important.
An example, if I go to a show and bands give out a CD for free I would think the band was desperate for people to hear their music. If there's seemingly no demand for it I would assume the product blows and would not bother giving it a listen.
If I went to a show and the band kicked ass and I bought their CD for $15.99, damn straight I would listen to it. If that same kick ass band reduced their price to $5 then I would assume their CD is of lower quality or not much effort was put into it, and I may or may not listen to it.
I think if a band believes in their music then they should command a higher price. $15.99 is too much to charge, but up to a certain price point it makes your band look more serious and gives your product more credibility.
Now if you think your band sucks, that's a different story...

[stonepiano]

points well taken, SAW...

At first reading your post, I wanted to agree about perceived value but after running through my experience, I eventually couldn't.
The bottom line is, you can lose more fans by overpricing and kicking ass musically than you can by underpricing and similarly kicking ass.

I've seen a nationally touring act sell cd singles and 5 song ep's for $3 and $8 respectively and I respect the hell outta them. Actually, they're a very cool band for the pop-punk lovers out there.

.....on the other hand, you can always drop prices but fans don't like to see prices raised after being loyal. hmm..... could go either way on this one.

[stonepiano]

that whole piece was contingent on the fact that said band does not suck.

miles

[stuckatwork]

Stonepiano,
I agree, there's a point a which the price becomes too high and will reflect negatively with the consumer. I think in Nick's case $8-10 is not to much to ask for a resonably well recorded CD with 13 songs(see disclaimer). That's less then a $1 a song which is still a pretty good deal assuming their was an amount of work that was put into the CD.
I would pay $8 to see a movie(probably more like $20 after food and drinks), even if it was a bad movie, and I'd have nothing to show for it but a ticket stub. If you think your CD is good enough for the consumer to listen to it more then once, then a higher asking price is entirely resonable. I personally wouldn't waste my time with a $5 CD with 13 songs unless I knew for sure the band could deliver.