Record companies are pushing their luck over rising prices - Kevin Buckle

The Cure: Songs Of A Live World

It turned out there had been one email informing shops about the price rise in April which I had missed and then rather oddly, given we are normally sent the same emails over and over again, it had not been mentioned again.

My first thought was to check the prices from other shops as the increase meant that our CDs normally priced at £6 would now be £8. I needn’t have worried as their prices ranged from £9.99 to £10.99.

What I have not been able to find out is why the prices have increased. With vinyl, the original increased pricing was blamed on a shortage of pressing plants and ever rising costs, but now that things have stabilised vinyl prices are still regularly sky high compared to the cost of manufacture.

The cost of manufacturing CDs on the other hand has not increased at all in recent years and the turnaround for production is only a matter of weeks too.

Interestingly just before the new Cure album was released all of their mid-price back catalogue rose in price to the same extent and I do wonder if, after this experiment with increasing the price, sales didn’t drop so it was decided to roll out the idea for all mid-price CDs.

The whole thing reminds me of when all the prices for shipping parcels abroad went up during the pandemic, especially to North America and Australia.

The explanation was a perfectly plausible one that previously the parcels were transported using spare capacity in passenger planes and now without any passenger planes, couriers were having to hire planes.

The thing is the prices have never come down, as it was clear that if they had to, people would pay the higher prices.

Similarly with vinyl, there was a case for higher prices when demand was outstripping supply and there were not enough pressing plants. But now things have settled down the record companies have not only kept the high prices but gone on in many cases to increase prices further.

Shops too seem to have adopted this pricing policy. If we receive a limited amount of stock of a release, we price it as normal and just try to make sure it goes to fans rather than flippers, buying to resell online.

However, looking at some other shops prices it is obvious the criteria for pricing is simply what is the most somebody will pay.

So far Warners, our other big record company supplier, have not increased their prices, so if you don’t want to pay £38 for the Gorillaz Demon Days vinyl you can buy the CD for £6 instead.

One of our most popular albums by My Chemical Romance Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge is only £5.

While £8 is still a good price for an album I do hope the record companies don’t do what they have with vinyl and see how much further they can push their luck.