Date: Mon, Apr 8, 2002 8:46 PM
From: wbarwell@starbase.neosoft.com (William Barwell)
Errererererrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
So, I have been reading over the last two or three months
how
a most of the big music companies, Sony, BMG ect are
bitching
sales have dropped and are way down.
And by golly, it must be the fault of those nasty music
pirates
with their CD burners and computers. And these clowns
are now
wandering around the halls of Congress sobbing their
little
eyes out. And when some of these Senators and Congress
shits
see how big the PAC checks they clutch in their sweaty
little
hands as their bodies are wracked with sobs, they start
crying
in total sympathy with them.
Well, first of all, we have been in a major economic
slowdown
over the last year, whether we technicallycall it a
recession
or not. "Gee, I just lost my job, and my friends
who earlier
lost jobs can't seem to find work, I guess I'll go down
and spend
a lot of $$$$ on CDs" Right.
Tonight, I wandered down to my local mall, which I
usually
avoid, to look for a book, "Stupid White Men"
by Roger Moore.
I had been to several other book stores and didn't find
it
(sold out) so down to the mall and a chain bookstore,
which
worked out, I found it 30% list.
And on the way out, I passed Sam Goodies. Usually,
I avoid
SG's. I have a want list of stuff an arm and tow legs
long,
but SG's never has dirt. Lots of Rap, bad R 'n B, bad
classic rock, Latin, and little else I want. But I
gave
it a try, because hey, maybe I might luck out. Well,
no
Jarre, I was looking to replace some ancient records.
No this, no that.
Part of why sales are down? Bad selection. With
a 101 different genres, DVDs, VCR Tapes, kitchy junk,
posters and other jive, there is hardly any room
for a decent selection of anything anymore.
The only thing they are GURANATEED to have is the
latest offering from thebigger no-neck boy bands,
or the latest slop from Brittany Spears.
Classical? There isn't a classical selection
for 20 miles from here. Maybe even not there.
Its now 3 CDs wide, 8 down, and its all indiffrent tripe.
Selections of Mozarts ect on some "CLassical Music
to Relax
To" type drivel, the usual Beethoven, Mozart, Charelotte
Church,
one Pavaratii CD.
Electronic? No, maybe a small and indifferent selection
of Newage crap. Rock? I was looking for a few old
faves to replece records. Never see what I want, but
the usual crap you here on the oldie moldies shows
is there. Led Zeppelin. Dark Side of the Moon. Feh.
But, today, I did find a few possible CDs. Until I
saw
the price. An Enya CD, Lorenna McKennit, but..
But...
But...
$18.99 a CD. Whot th' $!$#!#!$$!!! says I!
So I look carefully at prices. Radiohead, $17.99.
Slayer, $19.99 $19.99 for a Slayer album?
Everything was $17.99, $18.99, $19.99.
So, hey you stupid music companies, I THINK I SEE
YOUR PROBLEM!
Bad music, bad selection, outrageous prices.
And in the middle of a recession, you decided
to price yourself out of the market.
Somebody should tell these bozos the economic concept
of price-elasticity.
You raise prices too much, people don't buy.
Bad selection and bad prices, people definitely don't
buy.
I was offended that these blubbering, crying rec execs
want to ream me $18.99 for a McKennit album.
I wonder how some kid working an $8 an hour ISP help
desk job would feel finding that Ramlah CD is $18.99,
or Ramstein, $18.99, or $17.99 for Radiohead.
No wonder nobody's buying, except the Glorps who
can stomach lost leaders like BackStreet Boys, special
sale at $12.99.
At any rate, sometime next week, I will wander over
the the local Best Buy, and next door, Target, and next
to that,
another big electronics chain store to eyeball prices.
So, am I the only one to find prices seem to have jumped
sky high over the last few months?
What's average price for a CD near you?
Am I the only one smelling a plot? Run up prices
in a recession, watch prices drop, slap my hands with
glee
as I practice my mopy face when I take th elatest sales
figures
up to The Hill to demand very stiff laws because they
are going bust because of all those bad CD copiers?
Next time you, my fellow SGs go CD shopping,
or wander through say a bookstore with CDs, even if
you had not really planned a CD buy, check prices
and report back here averages. $16, $17, $18?
Are they gaming us again?
Pope Charles
SubGenius Pope of Houston
Slack!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Modemac <modemac@modemac.com>
>Next time you, my fellow SGs go CD shopping,
>or wander through say a bookstore with CDs, even
if
>you had not really planned a CD buy, check prices
>and report back here averages. $16, $17, $18?
I don't remember the last time I bought a CD at Sam
No-Goody's, or in
any mall at all. Okay, I did buy Windham Hill's "Winter
Solstice" for
$16.99, but that's because it was the night before my
wedding and I
needed a track on it ("Greensleeves"). But
other than that, I do
*all* my CD shopping at used music stores. $8 to $10
for a CD, and
there's always *lots* of stuff there that you'll never
find at those
crappy mall stores. And the music played at an indie
music store is
what the guys working there *want* to play, not what
the corporations
want you to hear.
And if you really want something bad, you can buy it
online. I saw
Slayer's "Haunting the Chapel" for $9.99 plus
S&H at buy.com.
--
First Online Church of "Bob"
http://www.modemac.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "LXIX" <post_replys_please@this.address.is.invalid>
Dang right! I never buy new, only used. The only,
ONLY, time I buy
new is when it is straight from the band.
--LXIX--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: El Queso <the_cheese_23@yahoo.com>
Amen, brother. Straight from the band is the way to
go. Solves most
problems except using the damn mail system. I buy lots
of cds at shows
from bands, no postage or wait, and all the cash goes
to the band.
Cheers,
Queso
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: nikolai kingsley <nikolai@broadway.net.au>
> Bad music, bad selection, outrageous prices.
one day, perhaps one day soon, with a little help from cool stuff like:
http://www.cray.com/news/0204/xfersystem.html
it will be possible to put EVERYTHING - every last "Bob"damned
thing -
onto one storage medium. every song, every speech, every
rant, every
HOS, all the films, all the crap TV shows that you really
can't work out
why anyone bothered saving except for some anal-retentive
sense of
completion... EVERYTHING, encoded into Wotron resonance
waves inside a
button the size of a headache tablet. and it'll be so
easy to copy that
no-one will bother protecting the rights; they'll just
get on with
making more crap.
nikolai
---
considering the above, perhaps i should get into writing
FANTASY.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: iDRMRSR <alex.i.thymia@depression.org>
I jes filled my rookers with CDs at $14 and $15 at Best
Buy here in
Cleveland (west side one). By the time I pay S&H
at http://cdnow.com/
it's cheaper here. Now dang, if I liked the popular
stuff, I could
still survive with Kazaa or something. Damn sophisticated
musical
tastes anyhow.
Shit man, you're in Houston, and that's in Texas. The
only thing I
imagine you'd find in stores there is stuff to keep
yer pickup going,
ass covered, and Mexican food. I wouldn't think there's
enough Nancy
Boys there to stock any classical stuff. But here,
we got a little, and
decenter prices 'cuz it don't hafta be trucked clear
out to Tejas. I
guess. Am I an ecumnomic anuslick or what?
[*]
-----
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com>
CD... "shopping"? I do not know this, this "CD shopping."
You mean there are stores that have them, already made?
You don't have
to make them yourself on a 50 cent disk? And they're
only TWENTY BUCKS
or so? WOW! What an IDIOT I've been!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Modemac <modemac@modemac.com>
Of course, downloading MP3s from the Net and burning
them onto CD is
ILLEGAL. We'd never do that.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com>
> I jes filled my rookers with CDs at $14 and $15
at Best Buy here in
> Cleveland (west side one). By the time I pay S&H
at http://cdnow.com/
> it's cheaper here. Now dang, if I liked the popular
stuff, I could
> still survive with Kazaa or something. Damn sophisticated
musical
> tastes anyhow.
>
> Shit man, you're in Houston, and that's in Texas.
The only thing I
> imagine you'd find in stores there is stuff to
keep yer pickup going,
> ass covered, and Mexican food. I wouldn't think
there's enough Nancy
> Boys there to stock any classical stuff. But here,
we got a little, and
> decenter prices 'cuz it don't hafta be trucked
clear out to Tejas. I
> guess. Am I an ecumnomic anuslick or what?
Mister Sister? Texas was pretty much bought by the Conspiracy
quite
some time ago. The stores there are exactly like the
stores here. The
streets there look exactly like the streets here and
they have the same
names. All the franchises are identical. There are slight
variations,
like FuckAll instead of ScrewAll. Everyone now living
in Texas came
from elsewhere, and no native Texan remains in Texas.
We dispersed like
the gypsies or the Jews. Someday we will regroup and
on that day all
the world shall tremble in fear.
Way out in the boonies there are still some slight differences.
But
let's face it, Dallas now goes all the way to Cleburne,
and pretty soon
it will engulf Waco and finally Austin. About the same
time as it
merges with Houston -- or does nuclear battle with Houston.
Jesus and
Magdalen are on the run even as I speak.
Decenter prices. You have no idea how insanely much
we're paying for
gas. Things aren't trucked TO Texas, they are trucked
out. Things like
misery, death, taxes, "Bob," and a headache
that lasts all year. As
Brother Dave Gardner put it, "Us STUPID SOUTHERNERS...
selling WATER to
those BRILLIANT YANKEES!"
And look who keeps taking over the fucking country.
TEXANS. ARTIFICIAL
Texans of course but what is now called "TEXANS"
by default. You think
the North won the Civil War, though, probably. Sure...
for a WHILE.
The Devil, you know, sold Texas and moved to Hell. The
Texans are now
doing something similar. I went North to the Spaceport.
Actually since I was not born in Texas, I am not a true
Texan in the
strict Texan definition of the word. Even Hank Hill
suffers under this
same technicality.
Mister Sister, I wish to God I could tell you that Texas
is like you
thought it was.
Original file name: I think I see what your problem - converted on Friday, 20 September 2002, 16:08
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