The Art of Charging ~$48 for an Album

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  • 1ThoughtKnown
    1ThoughtKnown Posts: 6,155
    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
    FR181798 Posts: 2,166
    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
    smile6680 Posts: 433
    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
    BF25394 Posts: 4,935
    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?
    I gather speed from you fucking with me.
  • Damiens
    Damiens Posts: 774
    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
    FR181798 Posts: 2,166
    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
    lastexitlondon Posts: 14,874
    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 


    this song is meant to be called i got shit,itshould be called i got shit tickets-hartford 06 -
  • Spiritual_Chaos
    Spiritual_Chaos Posts: 31,444
    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. 
    "Mostly I think that people react sensitively because they know you’ve got a point"
  • Spiritual_Chaos
    Spiritual_Chaos Posts: 31,444
    edited September 2022
    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



    "Mostly I think that people react sensitively because they know you’ve got a point"
  • Cropduster-80
    Cropduster-80 Posts: 2,034
    edited September 2022
    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 
    Post edited by Cropduster-80 on
  • Spiritual_Chaos
    Spiritual_Chaos Posts: 31,444
    Cropduster-80 said:
    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 

    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 
    In 1992 a new CD here cost 115 SEK ($10.90)

    When I bought new CD:s (single disc releases) in the late 90s they where strictly 149 SEK ($14), other than in maybe a gas station or something where they could be 159-169 SEK. I find it surprising prices in the US where more expensive. 

    But the price going up is not the issue, who has talked about that as an issue? Everyone knows about inflation. But inflation doesn't hit different artists differently. 

    "Mostly I think that people react sensitively because they know you’ve got a point"

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