Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. But I'm also interested in the older stuff: the back catalog. All the big labels have tons of old recordings sitting in their archives. This stuff has already been produced, bought, and paid for. If it's in release now on CD, it's generally as bargain CDs. (Example: George Szell conducting the Cleveland Orchestra in the Beethoven Symphonies. These recordings were originally made about 40 years ago for CBS; they are now owned by Sony Classics and sell for $7 per disc. Obviously these are aimed at people who want a cheap recording of Beethoven.)
From where I sit, these recordings ought to be gold mines for the labels. It seems to me (somebody correct me) that taking the CD masters and making digital files out of them would cost very little, and then boom, you have stuff ready for resale at your favorite music store. At such a low production cost (no CD, no box, no liner, no shipping), wouldn't it take only a very low level of sales to break even on such titles? Wouldn't almost any sales be money they would not otherwise have made?
Or, try this one out. How about you make them available for sale, but you don't bother digitizing them. Until somebody actually tries to buy it. Then, if you're really afraid you're going to put labor (highly paid labor I'm sure
) into digitizing the stuff that you'll never break even on, then you don't have to. Sure, there would be logistical challenges (that first person who bought wouldn't get an immediate download would they?),