The Art of Charging ~$48 for an Album

Spiritual_Chaos

I took a walk by my local record store here in the beautiful moose-ridden kingdom of Sweden. Summer is still clinging on, while Fall is trying to push its way in. Soon, the time of hot vegan coco, a burning fireplace and a soothing LP on the record player is upon us.

The local record store is small. A mom and pop-store located in what I believe once housed a small gallery framing paintings. The record store is mostly selling used vinyl, but with a small and growing selection of new releases. The guy running the store is very friendly. I think he once were in a semi-successful Swedish rockband, but I do not know the name of it. 




We talked about how expensive vinyl has gotten. I mentioned the prices I believed to have seen of Eddie Vedder's latest album. An 1 LP release for something like $41-42. Way too expensive for me. Almost at the level of being obscene I told the friendly Record store guy.

The guy looked at me with a blank expression. To my surprise he had bought two or three copies of Vedder's latest album to his small Record store. But the price of 41 or 42 dollars was not what the album was priced at. He directed me to the crate labeled "New arrivals" and I sifted through it, ending up on the beautiful photo of Eddie reaching for the sky with his guitar, taken by Danny Clinch. The price tag was located at the upper right: 500 Swedish krona ($46,5).




I told the friendly guy that this was not almost at the level of being obscene, it had surpassed that level. The friendly guy nodded in agreement. And he told me, that the price of $46,5 was not the standard price he should charge for it. He said he just couldn't charge over $46,5 - as in breaking 500 Swedish krona - for an one LP album. So he had to lower his margin on this album, this album released by Eddie Vedder. Looking at other sellers, I noticed that the standard price for the album is 519 Swedish Krona - roughly $48.

In Sweden the price of an LP, is set across the board by using this formula: The PPD (Published Price to Dealer, by the distributor) times 1.25 (sales tax) times 1.3 (the record stores margin). The margin had to be lower than the usual 1.3 on this album, to not cross this friendly Record Store owner's limit of what he had in him to charge for a single LP wide-release studio album.

The formula, gives us the distributors PPD. 519 Swedish krona divided by 1.25 divided by 1.3 = 319 Swedish krona ($29.5).

Eddie Vedder and the distributor have agreed to charge record stores $29,5 (not counting huge resellers like Amazon's discounts) for this album.
Obviously Sweden is considered an expensive country, and we have a sales tax that might be a bit higher than in other countries.

So let's compare this to other albums in this somewhat pricey country. To see what these 519 Swedish Krona ($48) actually means in comparison to other recent and upcoming releases:

Ozzy Osbourne - Patient Number 9 349 Swedish Krona ($32)
Muse - Will of the People 269 Swedish Krona ($25)
Tegan and Sara - Cry baby 369 Swedish Krona ($34)
RHCP - Return of the Dream Canteen (2 discs) 429 Swedish Krona ($39.5)
Soul Asylum - Grave Dancers Union 289 Swedish Krona ($27)
Ben Harper - Bloodline Maintenance 329 Swedish Krona ($30.5)
Pixies - Doggerel 339 Swedish Krona ($31)
The Mars Volta - The Mars Volta 329 Swedish Krona ($30.5)

I left the store without Eddie Vedder's new album. It felt weird. I had always bought everything by Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder at release. Most often having it pre-ordered. From the self titled in 2006 forward. I believe I was a few weeks late on buying Riot Act. The releases before that, were before my time as a fan.

I walked out of the friendly guy's Record store. A guy who just couldn't charge what Eddie Vedder and the distributor expected him to charge. The weather was now a bit cooler. A chilly fall breeze.

I left asking myself, who is a 519 Swedish Krona album for?  
And who would argue 519 Swedish Krona is a fair price?

ST66483

This is really interesting to me.  

Not looking to dispute any of it, but out of personal curiosity how much did you have to charge for your label’s release? If stores are selling it what do they charge for that same release? No need to divulge if you don’t want to disclose that. Just curious.

In Canada I find most new vinyl to be quite expensive, with lots in the $30’s & $40’s and the odd one even pushing into the $50’s CAD. I find I don’t buy much new vinyl anymore as a result. No big deal to me, just not looking to spend that much on a single album, I’d rather spend on other things like concert tickets.

1ThoughtKnown

if you don’t want to pay $48, don’t. Vote with your wallet. It’s all a consumer can do.  Supply and demand is not a new concept. 

FR181798

I haven't bought it yet. I thought it was too expensive. I've bought expensive LPs before but told myself I'm going to stop that. I'm going to give in eventually and will hate myself for being weak. I could quite easily buy 3 New LPs for the same cost. 

tusevun

Shocked a band that celebrates milking every dollar on merch would want their share. 

tino_11

1ThoughtKnown said:

if you don’t want to pay $48, don’t. Vote with your wallet. It’s all a consumer can do.  Supply and demand is not a new concept. 

I really do hate this argument. The person wants the vinyl but doesn’t want his eyes taken out. He did vote with his wallet but he can still be disappointed that it had to be this way. 

I’ve stopped buying most vinyl. Only get what I absolutely want and I did buy this just to keep my collection complete (probably against my better judgement). 

i am a target

I really don't understand people sometimes. In this sense, and in any sense that a fan interacts with him, Eddie Vedder is a business - and guess what? Part of what a business does is to make money. The man isn't your buddy. It might as well be released as Eddie Vedder, Inc.  

All you see is a price tag and have no clue how much it costs to produce and distribute the physical product or what other costs are associated with getting that record into that particular store in Sweden. 

As with anything, the price is the price. Buy it used. Don't buy it at all.

Really, is it the music that makes you happy, or is it feeding the destructive capitalist addiction that manifests itself through consumerism that you value more?

JimmyV

Vinyl is just stuff. It has long been overrated, and now it has become overpriced. There are cheaper ways to enjoy music and they don't come with the clutter of vinyl record albums. This is one type of collecting I'm glad I never got into. 

bone

I'm in the same boat as you.  Can't seem to find it below $50 in Canada and that just seems to be way too much for what is essentially the worst album ever released by him.  I might have fell for it if the vinyl was available on release day, but not now.  Gigaton wasn't cheap either but at least it was a double album with amazing packaging and a way better collection of songs.

Those who have bought it, is the packaging as plain as it appears on Discogs without even a booklet or lyric sheet or even credits?
https://www.discogs.com/release/24059600-Eddie-Vedder-Earthling/image/SW1hZ2U6ODE1ODkwMjU=

smile6680

Being a Pearl Jam/Eddie Vedder fan has become expensive. 

I didn't say this to get a bunch of negative responses. They can and should charge what they believe is fair.

1ThoughtKnown

tino_11 said:

1ThoughtKnown said:

if you don’t want to pay $48, don’t. Vote with your wallet. It’s all a consumer can do.  Supply and demand is not a new concept. 

I really do hate this argument. The person wants the vinyl but doesn’t want his eyes taken out. He did vote with his wallet but he can still be disappointed that it had to be this way. 

I’ve stopped buying most vinyl. Only get what I absolutely want and I did buy this just to keep my collection complete (probably against my better judgement). 

It’s not really an argument 🤷‍♂️. It is just the facts. 

If something is too expensive and everyone stops buying it, the price comes down.  I mean, if you owned a business wouldn’t you want to make some cash?  These artists have been ripped off since the early 90s by everyone stealing from them digitally. 

If spending $48 on a record is too much for you, despite all of the almost free entertainment you get from the same songs all over the internet, then don’t buy it. The prices will come down if the majority vote with their wallet. 

So you can hate the reality… but art is bought and sold in all forms and demand drives price.  

1ThoughtKnown

smile6680 said:

Being a Pearl Jam/Eddie Vedder fan has become expensive. 

I didn't say this to get a bunch of negative responses. They can and should charge what they believe is fair.

This is a fair comment and should receive no negative responses. Successful business charge what they think is fair…. but if anyone thinks all the inflation in the world hasn’t hit the record manufacturing market, your head is buried way in the sand. 

RatherStarved

Wouldn’t it be great if there were a way to listen to music without having to buy a physical record?

Oh wait, the last 40 years have already happened!

apirk72

JimmyV said:

Vinyl is just stuff. It has long been overrated, and now it has become overpriced. There are cheaper ways to enjoy music and they don't come with the clutter of vinyl record albums. This is one type of collecting I'm glad I never got into. 

Super Jealous, we are redoing our basement and am in the process of moving 3,000 + records out of my basement and it fucking sucks.

There is a lot of fluctuation with prices and as with all mass produced vinyl it always goes on sale if you can wait.  You can listen to it basically for free but it is going to cost you to hold it, pretty sweet deal if you don't have an attachment to things.

Spiritual_Chaos

1ThoughtKnown said:

smile6680 said:

Being a Pearl Jam/Eddie Vedder fan has become expensive. 

I didn't say this to get a bunch of negative responses. They can and should charge what they believe is fair.

This is a fair comment and should receive no negative responses. Successful business charge what they think is fair…. but if anyone thinks all the inflation in the world hasn’t hit the record manufacturing market, your head is buried way in the sand. 

Maybe my head has been buried in the sand, but I had totally missed that inflation targeted selected artists and drove up Eddie Vedder prices more than other artists, e.g. the ones listed in the post. Could you please elaborate on that, and educate us all on this phenomenon. Thank you.

on2legs

It sounds like the Eddie Vedder record is expensive. However…. Vinyl is a niche medium and a luxury not a necessity.  EV is entitled to charge what he believes his art is worth.   There are other ways to obtain the music that cost less.  If you can’t afford a Cadillac, you can still buy a Ford.  

EdVedder_1

Gas food rent all are now obscene.

mpedone

Spiritual_Chaos said:

1ThoughtKnown said:

smile6680 said:

Being a Pearl Jam/Eddie Vedder fan has become expensive. 

I didn't say this to get a bunch of negative responses. They can and should charge what they believe is fair.

This is a fair comment and should receive no negative responses. Successful business charge what they think is fair…. but if anyone thinks all the inflation in the world hasn’t hit the record manufacturing market, your head is buried way in the sand. 

Maybe my head has been buried in the sand, but I had totally missed that inflation targeted selected artists and drove up Eddie Vedder prices more than other artists, e.g. the ones listed in the post. Could you please elaborate on that, and educate us all on this phenomenon. Thank you.

Different producers might charge differently. Hell, the same producer might charge different artists differently. The artists may have ordered their pressing at different times (even if the release dates are similar). There are other factors too. It's an EV solo album, so it might not sell as well as full-band albums, so maybe they order less and miss out on bulk discounts others get?

I honestly don't know the answers to these questions. Maybe Ed/the record label is gouging record stores, but maybe there are more factors than we've thought of. 

Cropduster-80

A 40 dollar album was 15 dollars in 1987 dollars if you work inflation backwards 

An average lp probably cost 10-12 bucks back then.

it’s not as obscene as it appears. 

It’s the same thing as AP charging 150 for a UHQR.  Mofi charged 50 for one in the early 80’s.  That’s $153 dollars today if you pick 1982 as the date. That’s the same 

I think a major difference is today people want/have more of everything.  So a 50 record collection 40 years ago has changed become an expectation a collection contains 300 records.  I really think it’s more expensive mainly because of that.  It’s not just records. Families have more cars, more TV’s, more of everything so it’s obviously more expensive but just for different reasons. Quantity not cost. My dad was stunned when he saw my record collection which isn’t even that big. His is 1/4 the size at best and vinyl was the predominant medium in his age. He still has all of them 

1ThoughtKnown

on2legs said:

It sounds like the Eddie Vedder record is expensive. However…. Vinyl is a niche medium and a luxury not a necessity.  EV is entitled to charge what he believes his art is worth.   There are other ways to obtain the music that cost less.  If you can’t afford a Cadillac, you can still buy a Ford.  

Ford all the way!!! I could afford a Lambo and I’d still drive my F-150. 😎
Next one will be the Lightning EV in a couple/three years 

1ThoughtKnown

Listen, Ian and Dischord have done a great job of keeping record prices low forever. They have a way of doing business, so I’m not saying it is impossible. Having said that, the pressings are terrible, usually done at United. Awesome for post-hardcore and punk records, but not the way I want to hear jazz. 

Anyways, you pay for quality, which is the same as anything else in the world. 

As far as inflation affecting the production of vinyl, the cost in making the item could be affected by everything from the price of materials rising, rising logistics costs, paying premiums to get a release pushed to the front of the line as pressing plants are backed up for months, rising costs of production, remastering costs could be rising for the best in the business. Basically, anything that goes into making a record has gone up, which it does year in and year out as the central banks of all capitalist nations attempt to keep inflation in the 2-3% range. 

Inflation is now anywhere from 6-10%, so the small, gradual price increases we are used to on most consumer goods since the late 70s are now much more pronounced. Hyper-inflation is crazy stuff, read a little about what goes on in Venezuela or Argentina. You don’t know what something is going to cost the next day. 

1ThoughtKnown

I will say, the Spotify clear Earthlings pressing was an “ok” pressing and not worth what I paid for it. The fresh press is my listening copy. 

FR181798

Only my opinion but I think everyone is kidding themselves here trying to put some rationale behind the crazy prices for Earthling. I don't believe any of the reasons people have come up with above. This is not some rushed vinyl pressing. It's been some time since the initial announcement. These have been in the queue for ages. The most expensive new LPs I've seen over the past couple of years have been Gigaton and Earthling. Management know exactly how much Pearl Jam fans will pay and have priced accordingly. EV and Pearl Jam would have almost no involvement in this.

smile6680

FR181798 said:

Only my opinion but I think everyone is kidding themselves here trying to put some rationale behind the crazy prices for Earthling. I don't believe any of the reasons people have come up with above. This is not some rushed vinyl pressing. It's been some time since the initial announcement. These have been in the queue for ages. The most expensive new LPs I've seen over the past couple of years have been Gigaton and Earthling. Management know exactly how much Pearl Jam fans will pay and have priced accordingly. EV and Pearl Jam would have almost no involvement in this.

This seems to make sense. Does that mean Pearl Jam/ Eddie Vedder hand over the music and say make as much as the market allows? Very possible and I don't have any evidence to say otherwise.

BF25394

I've been fascinated for a while by the fact that, back around 1990, a new release by a major artist cost $7.99 on LP and $11.99 on CD at my local record store (in 1990 dollars).  Today, a new release by a major artist goes for $11.99-$15.99 on CD and $25.00-$35.00 on LP (in 2022 dollars).

I grew up listening to records (LPs and 45s).  Around 1992, in my late teens, I made the switch to CDs.  However, I continued to buy Pearl Jam releases on LP as well as CD, initially because it meant I could get Vitalogy two weeks early but also because I wanted to have the larger format for the artwork (and thus bought Ten and Vs. on vinyl when Vitalogy came out).  Although I have a certain nostalgia for records and the tactile experience of them from my youth, I have never believed that it was a superior format to the CD in terms of sound quality or convenience, and it has been very interesting to me to see how records have become fetishized by so many music listeners today.  It makes more sense for the average Gen Zer, who never really had much exposure to CDs, to prefer records because their only basis for comparison is streaming/downloads.  But what puzzles me are older folks who grew up with records, abandoned them for CDs, but then in the last ten years, somehow rediscovered them and decided they were the better format all along.  If the average Gen X vinyl enthusiast had kept buying vinyl in the '90s, the format might not have been phased out for lack of demand.  What happened, for this subset of buyers, to get them to embrace a format that they previously by-and-large abandoned?  Is it just because vinyl became trendy?  I was amazed to see what the Lost Dogs LPs go for.  I bought it at the time of release for $15.00.  Now it resells for hundreds of dollars because it's rare, and it's rare because none of the people who swear by vinyl today had any interest in the format back then so they didn't produce that many.  Where were all the current-day 50-year-old vinyl lovers then?

Damiens

IMHO I think a pretty strong argument could made that Pearl Jam and Eddie have a track record of being friends and allies of independent record stores.  Earthling had an independent record store variant that you could only get from an indie store.  They consistently put out releases for RSD, recorded an EP at an independent record store, etc. etc.  All of this drives fans to their local record store vs. large websites.  I bought my copy of Earthling at a record store bc I wanted the indie variant, Jack White does indie variants, so does Weezer and a lot of other bands. Shop owners I talk with say they appreciate it because it gets people in the store.

Earthling did cost more than a lot of LPs I bought but I play it a lot more than other LPs I bought because I love the album.  Would I have loved to buy it for $25, sure, but it was worth $45 to me.  Prince's estate put out a deluxe copy of Welcome 2 America that I thought about getting but it was over $100 bucks so I didn't get it.  I was able to get a copy for $35 recently because it looks like the demand wasn't there at $100.  You see this a lot, if an album doesn't hit price drops (I grabbed Adele's new one for $15 the other day).

Reissues can obviously help the pricing issue as well.  Pearl Jam has been good about this as well. The band put out more clear No Codes when prices started soaring on those in the secondary market.  I'd rather see the band make the money than resellers and I was thrilled to get the variant for "face value" vs the $100's the secondary was charging. They did the same thing with the Deluxe Bluray of PJ20 ten years ago as well.  Secondary market for the deluxe was hitting $300-$400, they reissued it.

Of course I would love if vinyl across the board cost less, but the increase in price is the cost of more and more people getting into a hobby that I dig, and loving bands that I love.   If the demand pushes popular artists' LPs to $45 that's probably overall good news for record stores in the long run and vinyl as a whole.  Hopefully it pushes the industry to invest in more pressing plants (Jack White has been pushing for this),shows the industry that independent stores are a viable sales channel and encourages more reissues of albums I missed out on the first time around.  I've seen pretty good prices for the Ukulele Songs reissue for instance, sub $20 in some cases which is WAY better than what the secondary market had for the first press.

In some ways vinyl feels like the video game market model...if you want something but can wait the price usually comes down over time...unless it's Mariokart...Mariokart is always expensive because everyone loves Mariokart.   Maybe Pearl Jam is the Mariokart of vinyl? Everyone loves them so demand is always there.

FR181798

Think the OP is saying that despite doing an indie only variant the indie store in question is making less than normal margin because of the high cost they have to buy it at and don't want to charge such a high price for a single LP. I commented on the price of something on a different artists message board one time and the artist themselves came back to me to say unfortunately they don't set the prices. It will very much be the same case here. Its very much someone else's department/ side of the business.

lastexitlondon

I like this thread. I can see all angles . I have a problem  with what its all starting  to cost so i dont buy stuff. Only rarely if its right. 
Interesting  thread 

Spiritual_Chaos

Cropduster-80 said:

A 40 dollar album was 15 dollars in 1987 dollars if you work inflation backwards 

An average lp probably cost 10-12 bucks back then.

it’s not as obscene as it appears. 

Was it an Eddie Vedder album that cost $15 in 1987, or an Ozzy Osbourne, Pixies or Tegan and Sara album?

Because those things are completely different, as evident by the OP. 

Spiritual_Chaos

And the pricing of 15 dollars in 1987 seems off, when super communist socialist expensive Sweden had a new LP cost $7.65 in 1992

Cropduster-80

Spiritual_Chaos said:

And the pricing of 15 dollars in 1987 seems off, when super communist socialist expensive Sweden had a new LP cost $7.65 in 1992

in the mid 90’s I distinctly remember paying 19.99 for cds for new releases of popular bands. 

all I’m saying is pricing is relative. It’s like when my grandma says “gas use to cost a nickle” true but you also only made $3,000 a year in the 1950’s

its irrational to Not expect prices to go up. Popular artists costing more than a no name band is also somewhat to be expected 

I think earthling is overpriced relative to audiophile labels coming in at the same price for something that sounds way better.  However it’s not that out of line with what the price should be expected to be. Maybe it doesn’t represent a good value but that’s different.  

I totally agree vinyl prices for the quality of the sound you get isn’t worth the money on these mass produced albums (Earthling being one). $40 isn’t too much to pay, if the quality is there. It isn’t and that’s a different discussion