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I buy a lot of discs now (10 to 15 per month), and would DOUBLE my purchases if CD prices were halved to eight bucks a pop. From '84 to '87 I didn't mind paying $15 or so for CDs, since I knew they were an "emerging" technology and that the startup costs were probably high. Twelve years later, however, economies of scale have yielded a windfall to CD manufacturers and music companies, yet prices have remained high. (For example, in New York City, most non-classical CDs at Virgin Records are from $15.99 to $17.99.) The companies should realize that consumer purchasing is generally elastic---demand will increase if quality and diversity remain constant but price drops. The companies would sell more of everything (since consumers could afford to experiment and buy different genres of music), even though profit-per-disc would be lower. In the end, I think they would definitely come out ahead, as would consumers. But a couple of dollars off per disc won't do it---they need to bring it down significantly below $10 before a consumer would actually feel like CDs are a "bargain" and are worth taking a chance on if not within the consumer's usual genre of favorite music. By the way, thanks for asking!