Retail CDs get personal

RETAIL CDs GET PERSONAL
[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune 5/3, AUTHOR: Eric Benderoff]
Executives from the world's leading record companies and the owners of the nation's struggling music sellers have been huddled in a Chicago hotel since Sunday, trying to figure out how to halt a slide in CD sales while providing music fans with new reasons to shop at a store. When the attendees of the National Association of Recording Merchandisers leave town Thursday, they'll have a little more knowledge on how to adapt to an increasingly digital music market, but also a sobering sense that things aren't getting better soon. A report released Wednesday from Ipsos Insight, a Chicago market research firm, showed that while 51 percent of U.S. consumers ages 12 and up bought a CD in the past six months, that's down 15 percent from 2002. Furthermore, a Sony executive said Wednesday that a 6 percent increase in online music sales in the first quarter hardly offset decreases in physical CD shipments, which were down 20 percent. One new tactic is selling digital singles: New machines, available from at least five different companies and now in operation in more than 150 record stores, Starbucks, book stores and big-box electronics stores across the country, allow consumers to pick 15 or so singles from various artists and burn them onto a CD. The cost of the do-it-yourself CDs varies depending on the retailer, but typically each song costs 99 cents after a $3 fee to cover the costs of a jewel case, customized labels and a CD. So burning one song costs $3.99 but burning 10 would cost $12.90.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0705021015may03,0,7930722.sto...