Amazon.com (US) offering "Burn on Demand"

[Themis]

Does anyone else remember the time (long after the release of CD) when we were told the reason CD's cost £15 as opposed to the £5 or £6 that lp's were was because they were a premium product?
Pure, perfect sound forever anyone?

I remember very well the advertisement hype :
- CDs were virtually indestructible. Last forever. (you bet!)
- You could make a copy as good as the original (nowadays, you are accused of piracy if you do that)
- They were easier to produce, stock or transport : so prices would quickly drop (still waiting for this : actual LPs are still the same price as CDs)

[Tony Moore]

Does anyone else remember the time (long after the release of CD) when we were told the reason CD's cost £15 as opposed to the £5 or £6 that lp's were was because they were a premium product?
Pure, perfect sound forever anyone?

Oohh yes. There was a little shop in Chester that started to sell CDs at £9.95 when they were mostly £13+ in the high street record shops. They did a roaring trade but were somehow removed from business (allegedly) for undercutting the big players. A sad loss at the time way before Amazon.

Then there was a national price fixing investigation I seem to remember that concluded that charging so much more for a CD than a record was fine. Newer technology, lower volumes, blah blah. (and this was at a time when they'd started giving CDs away free on the cover of mags) The same reasons they now give for how vinyl has leapfrogged in price over CD.

Cheers,
Tony

[Rare Bird]

Not long after CD first came out i was about to leave the record shop i worked..If i remember we had just a handful of titles in the whole shop..Dire Straits 'Brothers In Arms' & Bruce Springsteen 'Born In The USA' were two i remember, maybe 'War Of The Worlds' aswell!!..Others were to order but we sold very few..little later on i bought my very first CDP, Mission 'DAD7000', Cost me a fortune but sounded great at the time.i remember being virtually on bread & water for a couple months till i paid for it..