Hi John

It's not quite as simple as that. Some artists have to buy their CDs from their record company, so simply can't lower their price.

For those of us who run our own labels; if you subtract your costs (fuel, equipment, strings, phone bills, website, printing - and the unit cost of the CD, including recording and printing etc) from the fee, then divide by the number of hours you've spent preparing, organising, driving, hanging about and performing, you get an hourly figure some way below the minimum wage. So it's tempting to sell CDs at the 'market rate' of £10 or so pounds. That said, I do sell some old unwrapped CDs at £5, and I'm aware that I would sell more units if I dropped the price of my current CDs to £5. But the increased uptake would not be enough to make up the difference (I know because I've tried it). The break point is about £8. But that would mean carrying around a big bag of coins and faffing about at the CD stall - and life's too short!

However, as you suggest in your other thread, the economy may change these figures, so I'll keep an open mind.

Tom