Low CD Cost Could Stamp Out Classics

The unending debate over the prices of compact discs in these difficult economic times is an issue that affects all aspects of the recording industry. This point is confirmed by the controversy reported in “Garth Brooks Ropes a Record $16.98 Price Tag” (Calendar, Aug. 26).

The fact is that some CDs should be more expensive than they are, and the public deserves to understand why.

In 1982, the year harmonia mundi usa started operations, a good classical LP lasting 60 minutes cost around $12. Today, taking into account the cumulative effect of inflation over the past 10 years (around 50%), a CD that gives you 75 minutes of music (25% more than the LP) should cost $22.50.

Despite the fact that CDs in the United States sell for half as much as in any other country, for some reason the media, the record-buying public and certain segments of the record industry feel that a CD should not retail for more than $15. The justification offered is that the cost of manufacturing a CD is only about $2.

However, what we are selling and what costs money is the music, not the CD on which it is stored. When you buy a film on video, you pay your share of making the film, not the cost of the plastic.

Even if by some magic the cost of making a CD came down to 5 cents, it would barely reduce the retail price. The cost of the music would remain unchanged.

For example, a $60,000 classical recording released as a well-presented, well-documented CD retailing at $15 needs to sell almost 25,000 copies worldwide just to break even. If the retail price were $21, as it is in Europe, break-even point would come down to 15,000. An average sales figure for a classical CD is 5,000 copies worldwide over the first two years; 15,000 is considered a “hit.”

Of course, you can--and maybe should--sell a CD for under $15 if you can get the music at zero or very little cost.

Two possible ways of doing this are: be one of the “majors” who reissue repertoire from a huge and already depreciated stock of (often excellent) recordings or, be a vanity--or, even better, a pirate--label, with no recording costs at all and minimal presentation.

Quality new work, however, using talented artists, recorded in suitable venues with good sound, and the production of CDs with interesting texts by authorities on the repertoire, translated into several languages, unavoidably results in costs that are too high for retail prices to be $15 or less.

A $20 price tag for 75 minutes of music that you can enjoy over and over again is probably the cheapest form of intelligent entertainment today (in most cases cheaper than going to a concert to listen to the same program once).

If media, dealers and the public are not prepared to recognize and accept this very soon, the survival of what I would call the serious and committed independent classical labels is doomed. They will simply disappear, and with them, much of the interesting and adventurous repertoire not otherwise available, such as the harmonia mundi catalogue.

Goiffon is president of harmonia mundi usa, a company specializing in the production and distribution of classical music recordings.