I went cd shopping in Ennis last week and CDs averaged from 16-20 Euro (mostly looking Irish trad music). Is this typical for other european countries? Are the record stores just overpricing? I would be curious to know the average cost of the cd is to the retailer, and producer and what percentage goes to the artist. Oh yeah, and why are so many CDs not sealed?
Everything is expensive in Ireland.
20 for a CD would be average but I have seen CDs for 23.
Sealing CDs adds cost to the production, no reason to do it. A lot of trad CDs are self produced, artists take all the financial risk with distributors only taking small batches. In the majority of cases very little money is being made by artists from CD sales.
Still, I would like to know what the actual cost to produce a CD is in Ireland. Dischord Records here in the U.S. is a small label that puts the postage-paid price of the CD right on the outside cover (typically $10-12). It helps to prevent retailers from gouging thier customers. I typically try to buy CDs at concerts, so I know the retail mark up is going to the artist, at least.
The cost depends on the studio time, cover design, reproduction and all that.
Most people look at CDs as their calling card, it helps getting their name out, will help get gigs.
Unless you advertise actively (more cost) and do a lot of gigs outside Ireland your run is typically a small one so price will reflect that in order to at least retrieve the cost.
Shops like Custy’s when buying direct from the artist will give a fair enough price (these are rare though, most will only take on sale or return which gives more hassle than it’s worth), distributors in Ireland typically pay 7.50 per item on CDs that retail around 20. All cost of the CD will have to come out of the 7.50 including the postage to get them to the distributor.
Shops will determine the price even if you tell them explicitly you want a CD to retail at 18
Actually, it doesn’t always – last summer our band played at a festival where we had to pay the festival $100 to sell our CDs at their booth. Of course, they had to pay their workers, etc, and it wasn’t like we wanted to stand around all weekend – so I understand there’s a cost. But basically, we had to sell 10 CDs just to cover the cost of selling our CDs!
Bizarre.
17-20€ might well be the price in Spain for a CD too. Taking into consideration that in general terms Ireland is a more expensive country to live in, I find it reasonable.
My last acquisition, “Born for Sport” 15€. Very good price, but they were sold directly by Paul and Harry. One of the cheapest CD’s I bought ever in Spain. Terrific content inside!
Due to the small market appeal of a trad CD, it is hard to sell more than a few thousand. A fairly popular CD will sell let’s say 5000 copies.
Typical production costs involved (i.e. excluding marketing etc.) are:
Recording and mixing costs € 10,000
Artwork € 2,000
Mastering € 1,000
Reproduction € 9,000
Total €22,000
Divide that by 5000 and you get a cost per CD of €4.40
Add on €4.00 as a ‘profit’ for the artist and they sell to distributors for €8.40.
Artists price €8.40
Distributors mark-up (30%) €2.52
€10.92
Rertailers mark-up (40%) € 4.37
€15.29
VAT (Sales Tax) @21% € 3.21
The price to you € 18.50
So we have a CD selling for €18.50 from which the artist (who has put in a year of two work and a financial commitment of €22,000) makes €4.00 a copy if they manage to sell 5000 copies. All of which is why, like Il Friscaletto, I try to buy CD’s at gigs and why I get annoyed when I see posts like this one.
Edited to fix mathmathical error spotted by Mr. Krell. Bottom line remains the same (i.e. flat broke artist still flat broke).
I think the math there is a little squirrelly . Anyway, 1000-2000 copies is more likely (and thus a higher per CD cost for the fixed up-front costs of recording, artwork and mastering). Figure 20-30% of those might be used for promotion/airplay/reviews/damaged or mail loss (don’t forget the freight cost to pack and send them). At those quantities, even selling direct it’s probably costing the artist money. Reduce the take by putting any into distribution, either via an actual distributor or a direct to dealer discount, and its a tougher job. In my opinion, those who manage to make something do so by relying on friends for lower costs of recording, CD graphics design and mastering.
Kevin Krell
Hey. I resemble that remark. 
Offending transcription error has been corrected above. Changed 5.52 to 2.52.
On all other points we agree. 
If it makes you feel any better, Cló Iar-Chonnachta is having their annual Christmas sale. Although the prices will not be marked on their web site, any book or CD published by CIC will be at half-price, or about €10.00 per CD. Stuff by other publishers will also be on sale, but prices will vary.
djm
Yep, total sticker shock in Dublin and Doolin this summer. Could have easily filled a suitcase but I didn’t spend a dime on CD’s.
Digital downloads (mp3s) are the way to go. I downloaded two albums by Flook and other ITM albums for $.20 a tune (costs even less if you buy a complete album that has more than 10 tracks). Check out www.audiolunchbox.com. All the tunes were encoded with rates >256kbs (i.e., audio quality equalling a CD master). Now if we can only convince more artists to follow suit.