UNIVERSAL : CD sous les 10$...enfin, avec 20 ans de retard !!

Voilà une news qui vient de tomber ce matin aux USA.
UMG (Universal Music Group), la plus grosse maison de disque mondiale a decidé de baisser le prix des CD à moins de 10$ (moins de 8€).
Cette mesure prendra effet dans quelques mois (avant l'été) et on comptera différentes echelles de prix (9$,8$,7$ et 6$), ainsi que des éditions collectors (plus chères) pour les fans.
Bravo.
Beau geste, qui aurait du être fait il y a 20 ans. UMG se fera toujours une marge (business oblige, of course).

Voici 2 articles en anglais commentant cette news :

du billboard :
The Universal Music Group could rewrite U.S. music pricing when it tests a new frontline picing structure, which is designed to get single CDs in stores at $10, or below. Beginning in the second quarter and continuing through most of the year, the company’s Velocity program will test lower CD prices. Single CDs will have the suggested list prices of $10, $9, $8, $7 and $6.

To accommodate the lower pricing, UMG labels also plan to step up deluxe versions of albums that can sell at higher prices for the more devout music fans and collectors. UMG is also banking that the lower price points will at the least be offset by increasing CD sales volume.

25% profit margin

Retailers should respond well to the new price points. But the level of their acceptance will likely depend on the profit margins that the new UMG wholesale prices afford. According to sources, the new pricing structure will carry a 25% profit margin, which means that $10 list CDs will wholesale for $7.50; $9 for $6.75, $8 for $6, and so on.

Consequently, retailers who buy from wholesalers will likely be less enthusiastic about the move.

Newbury Comics CEO Mike Dreese gives the initiative “two thumbs up.” But he adds that the industry still needs the other major labels and independents to make similar pricing moves for overall CD sales in order to be positively impacted.

Du New York Times :
The Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company, announced plans on Thursday to test broadly whether lower prices — $10 or less — on new CDs will attract consumers who have cut back on buying CDs in recent years.

The trial, which is to start in the next few months and extend through most of 2010, will include a sample of the label’s new releases and involve most of the country’s major retailers, including Best Buy and Wal-Mart, the company said.

Jim Urie, the head of distribution at Universal, said CD sales had doubled at stores involved in a much more limited test of the pricing strategy. For the last nine months, Universal has worked with Trans World Entertainment, which set the lower prices at as many as 100 of its F.Y.E. stores.

CD sales have dropped by more than half since 2000, according to Nielsen SoundScan. And while many record executives say they believe that CDs and downloads appeal to different consumers, placing new CDs at $10 or less would bring the price closer to the going rate for many albums available on the iTunes Store or for download on Amazon.

The country’s top-selling album in the last week, Ludacris’s “Battle of the Sexes,” can be downloaded on Amazon’s MP3 site for $7.99, and a deluxe version for $9.99. The CD version of the album is sold on Amazon for $11.99.