Why are high resolution downloads so expensive?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by conjotter, Apr 10, 2015.

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  1. conjotter

    conjotter Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Hi folks.

    With no physical copy to produce or ship and no middle-man costs for distribution and sales, why aren't these downloads less expensive?

    I don't download yet, but will likely buy a high res portable when my old (2006) Creative Zen mp3 player finally gives up the ghost. Haven't been able to add new songs from my CD collection to the Zen for more than a year.

    Thanks.
     
    Linto likes this.
  2. davmar77

    davmar77 I'd rather be drummin'...

    Location:
    clifton park,ny
    because they can...
     
  3. colinu

    colinu I'm not lazy, I'm energy saving!

    ... shoot themselves in the foot.
     
    Blender, Linto, Starwanderer and 3 others like this.
  4. bferr1

    bferr1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA
    HD movie downloads are cheaper than 24/192 music downloads. Somebody's pricing is out of whack...
     
    Vidiot, Grant, dkmonroe and 1 other person like this.
  5. Jack Flannery

    Jack Flannery Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    Yeah,I'm done buying them. Some are great. Some are aweful. No recourse.
     
    erniebert and Atmospheric like this.
  6. Larry I

    Larry I Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, D.C.
    Anyone interested in supposedly better quality source material can be expected to be willing to pay a premium for quality. This is largely an issue of demand, not the cost of production. The sellers are NOT expecting to sell high definition to everyone, they are looking at just a particular segment in the overall market and they can command a premium for the higher quality in this little niche. If they lowered their prices, they would NOT suddenly see a surge in demand from the rest of the market--the vast majority don't care and would actually find HD LESS desirable because of the required extra storage.
     
  7. dnuggett

    dnuggett Forum Resident

    Location:
    DFW Texas
    They are running a business here. Unless you think the people running those businesses have no idea about supply/demand models and pricing curves and no understanding of their expenses you can be assured that they are priced at 1.) what the niche market will support and 2.) the amount needed to support the business structure and expected P&L.

    As the poster above me stated, it's not a matter of drop your prices and you'll sell more. Drop your prices and you are competing with Apple, Amazon and Google. Do you have a better product? Arguably to audiophiles you do. But even we argue about it. Will audiophiles keep you afloat as you enter a market against Apple, Amazon and Google? Will you get the source music cheap enough to compete, even if your product is better? Of course not.
     
    Last edited: Apr 10, 2015
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  8. Roland Stone

    Roland Stone Offending Member

    It's my understanding that music royalties are constant, regardless of the format or delivery mechanism. Also, the hi-rez labels don't own the masters, meaning they can't do a supply/demand price adjustment on the non-royalty part of their costs.

    I'm probably mangling this a bit, but it's been pointed out that such reasons are why a soundtrack CD tends to remain $15 even as the DVD of the actual movie becomes $4.99 bin fodder.
     
    Last edited: Apr 10, 2015
    tmtomh likes this.
  9. dnuggett

    dnuggett Forum Resident

    Location:
    DFW Texas
    BluRays are cheaper than most SACDs. HD movies aren't a niche market anymore. HiRes audio is. It is the supply/demand/pricing mix that any business must understand in order to survive.

    Many of us here ignore the realities of business.
     
    artfromtex and alan967tiger like this.
  10. mmars982

    mmars982 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    No physical copies to produce & ship doesn't exactly mean no costs. I would imagine keeping all of the files on servers & keeping the networks running smoothly can't be cheap.
     
    artfromtex likes this.
  11. bferr1

    bferr1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA
    If you're talking about MFSL and Analogue Productions, you're probably correct. But hi-res releases from major labels who do own the masters still have overinflated prices.
     
  12. Rolltide

    Rolltide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallejo, CA
    To the sellers, a high-res download costs more then a CD for the same reason that a large movie theater popcorn costs more then the small. I don't think all customers see it quite this way, but its hard to blame the sellers.

    Another more cynical view is that in the audiophile world, price brings a sense of cache, and cache attracts certain customers. I think some people would be highly skeptical of high res albums that were selling for $7.
     
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  13. gregorya

    gregorya I approve of this message

    It does get cheaper all of the time though. I can see charging a slight premium for High Resolution, but current pricing does seem excessive in many cases.
     
  14. gregorya

    gregorya I approve of this message

    Could you explain that?... It's quite possible that my daily caffeine level is currently below normal, but I don't get the analogy...

    Yes, the high resolution gives you more 0's and 1's... but the CD gives you a physical disc, a case of some sort, inserts, etc. (the packaging likely costs more than the CD in most cases).
     
  15. TeflonScoundrel

    TeflonScoundrel Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    I'm interested in getting hi-res files, but what stops me is not knowing the provenance of the recordings. In my experience, the quality of the production and mastering can have as much or more effect on overall sound quality and I can't bring myself to buy these files without knowing what exactly I am buying. I've seen too many reports of 192k files that when examined seem to have been produced from 44k masters. I am not aware of any hi-res provider supplying this info and it's unfortunate, because I would be willing to spend the money if I knew for sure I was getting something better than a CD.
     
    FritzL, TommyTunes, jriems and 5 others like this.
  16. bferr1

    bferr1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA
    It's the niche hi-res labels that are setting market prices, and everyone else is following. Reminds of the laserdisc days when major studio LDs were $35 or $40, and the Criterion Collection titles were $100 or $125. It wasn't long before studios started to charge the same price for their special editions.
     
    Grant likes this.
  17. Rolltide

    Rolltide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallejo, CA
    CDs are "small", 96/24 is "medium", 192/24 is "large". Never mind the cost of pressing a disc, printing liner notes, etc - only think about paying more money for more bitrate. Never mind how unfortunately common it is for all three sizes to be upsamplings of the same cd quality (or below) files.
     
    tmtomh likes this.
  18. Rolltide

    Rolltide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallejo, CA
    Violent agreement to all of the above. I don't think high-res is inherently a scam, it's just there's some scams being run in this arena.
     
    riverrat and Vidiot like this.
  19. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    [​IMG]
    "It's a profit deal!"
     
  20. timind

    timind phorum rezident

    I'm in the same boat. Until I know for certain the hi-res file I purchase is truly hi-res, I'm out.
     
    weirdo12 likes this.
  21. Kustom 250

    Kustom 250 Active Member

    Location:
    Wisconsin

    Many also like to ignore the fact the movie business is designed to make back it's investment and probably make a profit before any physical product is sold.

    DVD/BLURAY and CD/SACD aren't even close to being the same business model.

    Start getting people to pay $7-12 a person to listen to an album one time. And then later on sell them a physical copy of that same music and then you can compare 'em.
     
    marcb, Mohojo and tmtomh like this.
  22. hesson11

    hesson11 Forum Resident

    Them ones and zeroes ain't cheap, my friend!
    -Bob
     
  23. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    Yeah and this also seems true of music performance videos. Music in general seems overpriced. I think it's nuts that there aren't more concert videos on Netflix or Amazon Prime also.
     
    jimdavies111 likes this.
  24. rockclassics

    rockclassics Senior Member

    Location:
    Mainline Florida
    I believe hi-res downloads are obscenely overpriced. This is very similar to CD pricing in the beginning when they were going for $16-18. Over time prices will come down.
     
    crispi, Nostaljack and mikemoon like this.
  25. dianos

    dianos Forum Resident

    Location:
    The North
    Since the source material most often is high res today it means it is more work in making the files worse than keeping them untouched so it should be the other way around..
     
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