Daryl Tay.net

This week’s Music Monday is going to be short because I’ve been in bed all weekend nursing a cold and a bad throat, but let’s get to it!

I was shopping at the mall (or what passes off as a mall in Kingston), the other day and was appalled to see cds being sold for $18 (I’m talking about new releases) which translates to about $24 in Singaporean dollars. Fully armed with the knowledge that the average album price on iTunes is $9.99, why in the world do these retailers think we’re going to shell out double of that, for a physical copy?

I mean I grew up buying cds and I still like having it to hold, but that cd isn’t worth an extra $9. (In fact, I went home and purchased the Katy Perry album off iTunes instead of buying it at the store. But that brings us to iTune’s DRM problem, which another story for another day…)

When will record labels realise that cds are very quickly going the way of the dinosaur? Being able to easily download music is only part of the piracy issue. The other part is that the labels and retailers are just making it easier to engage in piracy, rather than to pay some money for it. The reason why I’m spending more money on music here than back home is because they have cds priced between $9-11.

So out of curiosity, when was the last time you actually bought a physical cd? Are you comfortable with the idea of going totally digital? (ie: no physical cd at all). Let me know what you think.

Oh and an update: Remember how I was bummed about missing Metro Station? Well I found out on Last.fm that they’re playing in Toronto on the 26th of October, and my ticket arrived in the mail yesterday. Psyched!