Surely you're paying for the music, not the medium?

The medium is the message, which, in either case, in terms both Musical Quality & Profit Margins makes even £5 a little steep! We've been selling micro-run CD-Rs burned onto unbranded Taiyo Yuden media for £4 and still running at a significant profit for a run of 35 or so.

But that's a seperate issue - the item is sold and marketed as a CD, and is evidently burned off at home, with covers to match. Whilst I applaud such folklore (hence the thread prefix) I wince at the falsehood & the barefaced imitation of professional product.