Bob,

To add to what you've already said, consider this: A CD should cost a fraction of what a mastered, cut and pressed record used to cost. So why the $12.99 and up price? Probably the same rationale that accounts for the $1.75 and up gas prices.

CD technology was probably viewed by the wunderkinds of the music industry as a way to boost profits by charging more for less. I can almost see the charts and graphs they must have paraded around showing how a little plastic disc packaged in a little plastic box could save them a bundle and, at over 20 bucks a pop in the beginning, would boost profits through the roof. But, as with all clever schemes, they do sometimes backfire.

I still treasure my analog direct disc or half-speed mastered records played on my Transcriptor Turntable (as in Clockwork Orange) through my Audio Research vacuum tube equipment and custom made speakers. That's music and nobody will ever upload or download that.




[This message has been edited by Knute (edited 09-16-2003).]

P.E. Knudsen