More beefs (beeves?) with Dual Disc

2006-04-27T11:30:00.000-07:00

Lest I Forget:

You can only get 60 minutes of music on the CD side, rather than the original 74 minutes. That's right: You pay more...for less.

Also, these things won't play in many car CD changers and some CD players. So you buy them, pay your $18 plus tax, and then they don't even work when you want them to. And for me, the car is the best place to listen to music.

I think there hasn't been a general outrage over the Dual Disc yet mostly because most titles are not yet released EXCLUSIVELY on Dual Disc. Springsteen, yes. But not all titles. But make no mistake: the record companies envision Dual Disc's taking over the CD market. Soon, we'll be forced to pay $18 for anything! Then, it's to iTunes we'll go!

The Anti-Dual Disc Manifesto

2006-04-26T16:33:00.000-07:00

Dual Disc sucks. These are the reasons:

1) Putting content on two sides of a disc is very annoying because now both sides can get scratched. Before, you could rest your CD on the "painted" side, and not worry about the music side's being ruined. Now, you must keep the Dual Disc in its case at all times (and don't even think of putting it in one of those CaseLogic CD books or sleeves for your car!). It's easy to ruin....and come to think of it, the record companies and CD manufacturers could have introduced "scratch-proof" CDs ages ago! But they didn't. Why? Because they want you to scratch your CDs. That way you'll have to buy new ones! Is this a good business model? I don't know, but sales fall every year, and more people flock to iTunes....maybe it's because they know that mp3s won't scratch and be ruined. This would have been a simple fix. We can put a man on the moon but we can't have scratch-proof CDs? C'mon!

2) Thanks but no thanks for the "added content." We don't want to pay $8 more for something we didn't want in the first place. Who ever watches the behind-the-scenes or "making-of" things anyway? I want to listen to music in my car, not watch a DVD with a bunch of commentary. And then they market this package to us as "free" added content. Yeah, "free" content that we have to pay $8 more for! Do they think we're morons????

3) They subtract content just to re-add it and charge us more for it. They'll leave a few tracks the artist recorded off the CD, then put them on the DVD side as "bonus tracks." That supposedly gives them the justification to charge $8 more.

4) Why not let the consumer choose? Release titles in both Dual Disc AND regular CD formats. Then let the consumer choose which one he prefers. The very fact that they aren't doing this proves that they know that nobody would choose to buy the DualDisc. So instead they make us all buy it!

5) They think demand is inelastic! They do this for artists like Bruce Springsteen. They say, "Oh, well his fans are middle aged and don't care how much they have to pay for a CD." This is insulting and demeaning. I went to buy the new Springsteen album yesterday, but they wanted $17.99 plsu tax, putting it at about $20. For a CD! When I could just go to iTunes and buy it for $12 or so. And this was supposedly a "discount" off a $22 list price. What nerve! They don't try this scheme with new acts that they are trying to break, but they do it with established acts. They know we'll just keep on ponying up. Well, we as consumers have to prove to them that we won't. They figure, well, we'll make an extra $5 per CD sold with this DualDisc scheme, and maybe we'll lose x% of the customers who won't want to pay more. They do a calculation, and decide whether to go with a Dual Disc. They think demand is more ineleastic for artists like Springsteen. They think old people won't use a computer to download music, so they can just charge whatever they want! Pretty ironic that this was for an album of Pete Seeger songs! If I had a hammer, I'd smash all the Dual Discs in the Virgin Megastore to smithereens!

5) I like the way good old-fashioned CDs are designed. The bands work with artists to design the CD fronts. Pearl Jam's "No Code" album comes to mind. In fact, having interestingly painted CDs was one of the few things keeping me away from iTunes. But if the record companies make all CDs look the same (silver content on both sides, tiny ring in the middle identifying the album), then I have no more reason to "collect" them. They are shooting themselves in the feet!

I'm sure there are more reasons to hate this sleazy ploy, but this is all I can think of right now....Maybe I'll have more later....

Palalsky

I hate Dual Disc!

2006-04-26T16:08:00.000-07:00

I just created this blog. I've never blogged before, and always thought it was incredibly self-indulgent. But I hope people read this blog, and maybe we can get a movement together, and stop the spread of these damn DualDiscs! Sure, there's a veritable salmagundi of more important things we could be advocating for, but these DualDiscs really make me so angry! I know lots of people must agree with me. I used to work for a record company, so I know how sleazy this stuff is. In a little while, I'll post my anti-DualDisc manifesto/screed.

Palalsky

Dual Disc Sucks!

More beefs (beeves?) with Dual Disc

The Anti-Dual Disc Manifesto

I hate Dual Disc!