CD Wow loses / backs down

bonkey · 21-01-2004 05:09PM #1

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/35022.html

CD Wow, 0
Big Business, 1

jc

spongebob · 21-01-2004 05:11PM

The deal will add €3 or £2 onto each CD , thats about what Play charge but Play have a much wider selection .

M

Typedef · 21-01-2004 05:19PM

And boy, is the music industry happy. "It is not the consumer that will suffer, just CD Wow's profit margins. They made a lot of money out of cheap CDs," one insider told the FT.

You'd have to wonder really, do these people have low IQs?

krattapopov · 21-01-2004 05:26PM

right well, im STILL not goin to buy a cd from the mainstreet shops

seamus · 21-01-2004 05:30PM

Originally posted by Typedef
You'd have to wonder really, do these people have low IQs?

No, just big bank accounts to fill.

They're still going to work out cheaper than stores anyway, won't stop me buying from them.

sceptre · 21-01-2004 05:48PM

Doesn't affect DVD pricing.

Now perhaps I'm being a bit simplistic here but given that any region 2 discs they sell are for the most part, er, region 2[1] and are PAL, they're destined for the UK market anyway so hopefully the same stick can't be used there

(sceptre has never bought anything but DVDs from cdwow)

[1]Few exceptions. They do sell DVDs that are R2/4 as well as just R2. ANd my Monsters Inc is region 4 on the box but works with R2 as well (so obviously the disc is R2/4)

As seamus said, they're still going to be cheaper than your HMVs.

bonkey · 21-01-2004 05:51PM

Other than the general disgust I felt at the outcome, what interested me most in the article was the almost "by the way" comment made about the BPI "mulling over" suing Amazon for the same practice.

Personally, I hope they do.....because I can see that suddenly escalating to US/EU-level, at which point some compromise will be reached....which CD-Wow or another enterprising outfit will take advantage of.

As for the assertion that higher prices don't hurt the consumer......that doesn't even merit a response.

jc

BluE-WinG · 21-01-2004 06:07PM

The bastards...

Lets hope CDWow still maintain competitive prices.

cranoo · 21-01-2004 06:21PM

Will

there be any increase in the price of MP3's, "NO" well it does'nt matter then

Cranoo..................ww)

seamus · 21-01-2004 06:22PM

Originally posted by bonkey
Personally, I hope they do.....because I can see that suddenly escalating to US/EU-level, at which point some compromise will be reached....which CD-Wow or another enterprising outfit will take advantage of.

Indeed, that may even be what they're thinking. Even with £2 added to the price of the CDs, they're still cheaper. Shopping online is much easier (and has a better selection). CD-WOW know that people will still buy their CDs at the same volume for this reason. It's a cheap, and very large source of revenue. By fighting it, they could potentially lose that, and indeed, that would probably mean the end of them.

Amazon, however, can afford to fight on the cheap CDs issue. Amazon are better known for their books and videos, and even if they lost in court, it wouldn't be a significant drain on them. If, more likely, Amazon won in court, Cdwow, as you say can simply step back and resume selling CDs from Hong Kong (not importing - they never imported Cds from Hong Kong for sale).

Samson · 21-01-2004 06:28PM

What the fuck?

The British and Irish record industries have struck a mighty blow for consumers...

Surely that should read struck a mighty blow against consumers?
Bastards.

Discovering · 21-01-2004 06:43PM

My question is....

Who keeps the extra £2/€3???

If it is CDWOW then wtf?

Cuz all that means is their sales will go down but their profit margin will have a massive jump!

bonkey · 21-01-2004 06:58PM

Its not CDWow, because they've just agreed that they will not 'import' CDs into the EU.

Instead, they will pay the EU price for them, which is where the hike comes in....

The difference goes to the Sony's, EMI's etc. of this world. They charge €X for CDWow to buy a CD off them in Asia, and €(X+2) for them to buy it in Europe.

This disparate pricing strategy is what led to CDWow's business model in the first place. Now

Why do the distributors charge more in Europe? Well - as the article I linked at the top so rightly puts it : because they can.

jc

therecklessone · 21-01-2004 07:03PM

Checked the CD Wow site and the prices are changing already (I think).

Pre-releases on cdwow.ie are €15.95 (thats +€2 isn't it?)

Hong Kong site appears to be HK$107.99, an increase of HK€2 (feck all really)

Still, pity they caved to the gouging basta*ds.

robbie1876 · 21-01-2004 07:28PM

Hmmm prices on the .hk site are still at €10.79 odd, including most of the pre-releases. I wonder if they will just add the extra to the european sites.

As was stated on another thread somewhere, buying from a HK site and getting the product shipped to Ireland is pretty much the same thing as physically buying from a shop there and popping it in the post to yourself. We are not purchasing goods in the EU, therefore CD-WOW are not parallel importing, right?

I can't see how they can add the extra hike to the .hk site, which we all use anyway, don't we? I'm sure HMV will take the opportunity to put their prices up by €3 too

bonkey · 21-01-2004 07:50PM

Originally posted by robbie1876
We are not purchasing goods in the EU, therefore CD-WOW are not parallel importing, right?

CD-Wow were nevre parallel-importing. Their customers were!!! The only way CD-Wow could have been importing into Europe would be if they had a disty-centre here....which I don't believe they did.

You, as the consumer, would be the one importing from HK. Because you do this at a level below that where import duty becomes liable, you were not breaking any laws either.

However, this ultimately boils down to the fact that the intent of the law was to protect big business from suffering from its own disparate pricing mechanisms. Ultimately - even if that wasn't the wording of the law - thats what would happen...the big businesses would get the protection they thought they had in the first place.

Cd-Wow copped on that it was only ever on a losing streak here. Its only hope would be to get the Chinese government to intercede on its behalf with the WTO, and seek to get the unfair protectionism dropped.

This option, or the "fight it in the EU courts and lose" were both probably too expensive to bother with....so they went with option 3 : give up.

jc

sceptre · 21-01-2004 08:01PM

Originally posted by Samson
Surely that should read struck a mighty blow against consumers?
Bastards.

Might just be me but "mighty blow for consumers" reads as one of the most sarcastic things I've read all week, especially tied in with the general tone of the article.

Mind you, I'd have closed the article with "Thank you BPI.The world is a safer place".

Samson · 21-01-2004 08:06PM

Originally posted by sceptre
"Thank you BPI.The world is a safer place".

Touché.

On a related, but off topic note, can someone give me an alternative to:
http://www3.cd-wow.com.hk/index.php
as it seems to be just full of broken links.
If I use the cd-wow.com.hk url, I get redirected to cdwow.com

Mad Mike · 21-01-2004 08:12PM

Originally posted by Samson
What the fuck?

The British and Irish record industries have struck a mighty blow for consumers...

Surely that should read struck a mighty blow against consumers?
Bastards.

The technical term is ironing.

sunbeam · 21-01-2004 08:19PM

Originally posted by Samson
Touché.

On a related, but off topic note, can someone give me an alternative to:
http://www3.cd-wow.com.hk/index.php
as it seems to be just full of broken links.
If I use the cd-wow.com.hk url, I get redirected to cdwow.com

Seems to be redirecting now to http://www4.cd-wow.com.hk/

mollser · 21-01-2004 10:00PM

from the article;

forcing online retailer CD Wow to stop selling CDs imported from outside the EEA.

Something odd I noticed...

Fresh arrived today were 2 cd's, ordered only last Friday from the cdwow hk website:

The Thrills and Good Charlotte.

I had a little look as to where they were 'sourced' from, and low and behold, The Thrills was 'Made in the EU', and Good Charlotte was 'Made in Austria'. (granted, most other cd's i've bought from them were Asian, but thats beside the point

So, it really does beg the question as to how they were able to sell these to me so cheap at €10 odd each, when they were sourced in Europe. BIG BIG margins on these in the shops guys, if CD wow are selling the absolute identical product at half the price.

Kinda blows the Industry's argument out of the water there....:mad:

bonkey · 21-01-2004 11:31PM

Originally posted by mollser
I had a little look as to where they were 'sourced' from, and low and behold, The Thrills was 'Made in the EU', and Good Charlotte was 'Made in Austria'. (granted, most other cd's i've bought from them were Asian, but thats beside the point

So, it really does beg the question as to how they were able to sell these to me so cheap at €10 odd each, when they were sourced in Europe. BIG BIG margins on these in the shops guys, if CD wow are selling the absolute identical product at half the price.

Kinda blows the Industry's argument out of the water there....:mad:

There is no "industry's argument" other than that they sell CD's cheaper in Asia than they do in the rest of the world.

The "official" reasons vary from trying to combat the rife piracy over there, to lower per-capita income, to all sorts of other things.

At the end of the day, though, the CD companies have never claimed that they are selling CD's at the lowest possible price everywhere. Their fundamental complaint (and that of the BPI et al) is that someone is taking "unfair" advantage of them charging different prices.

Imagine if a petrol station in Dundalk was sold its petrol at 80% the rate that it is sold to Dublin garages....but only on the condition that it sold to Dundalk-registered drivers only....and most definitely not to Dublin drivers. Thats what the CD companies are doing with Asia.....and they have managed to get rules introduced that would also make it illegal for a Dublin garage or consumer to buy the petrol off said Dundalk garage....even though its cheaper.

jc

slave1 · 22-01-2004 10:01AM

there is a time and a place for everything, so excuse my belief that profanity is allowed on this thread..

what a bunch of pricks those ****ers are, they can shove it so far up their arse if they think that this "mighty blow for consumers" will get me into the local store and pay the prices we are presented with, they can go **** themselves with a chainsaw

:mad:

slave1 · 22-01-2004 10:03AM

er em I didn't type the **** bits

out of interest, how come earlier replies had f u c k allowed?

seamus · 22-01-2004 10:11AM

Originally posted by slave1
out of interest, how come earlier replies had f u c k allowed?

Because they are tricksy hobbitses

Mossy Monk · 22-01-2004 10:23AM

the BPI have done me a great service. it gives me more reason to shop online. they are a disgrace. everyone should spread the word about the cdwow's and play.com's of the world

seamus · 22-01-2004 10:30AM

Originally posted by Mossy Monk
the BPI have done me a great service. it gives me more reason to shop online. they are a disgrace. everyone should spread the word about the cdwow's and play.com's of the world

In fact, I'm going to be the annoying person who drafts an email and fires it off to everyone on my mailing list.

Mad Mike · 22-01-2004 10:33AM

I cannot understand why European retailers aren't putting pressure on the record companies to lower the distribution price of CDs etc within Europe. If people stop going into shops and move to buying online the record companies still make money but the high street retailer goes out of business.

savemejebus · 22-01-2004 11:18AM

the reason that most european retailers aren't putting pressure on the industry is that lots of them sell their cds and dvds at prices that are close to cd wow so they don't have to.

In germany you pay €10-12 for a new cd, and for the prices that HMV and golden discs charge here you can get SACD or DVD audio. Even in England CDs are regularly on sale for £9.99 in supermarkets. It's really only shi tty shi tty rip off ireland that gets the short end of the stick (remember even tescos used to do top 10 cds here for around €12 but not any more - i could be wrong about the any more bit).

They're trying to force us to pay inflated prices and just doesn't make sense. They may have a case if they were doing it to protect irish retailers and homegrown irish business but all they're doing is protecting HMV and Virgin, companies that aren't even Irish. And that bollocks about protecting the artists is pure crap, it's protecting record company profit margins not struggling artists.

I'd rather not buy CDs than pay the extortionate prices of the shops here:mad:

ixoy · 22-01-2004 12:05PM

CD Wow just sent me an e-mail on the issue: anyone get this? Here's the wording:

CD WOW! - An Important Announcement

Dear Member,

The UK Major record companies through their mouth piece the BPI* have unfortunately restricted the UK and Irish consumers right to enjoy the freedom of the World Wide Web.

As from this weekend, any CD ordered for delivery to the UK and Ireland will incur a surcharge as we are only able to deliver CDs manufactured within the EU (more expensive).

Delivery to the rest of the world will not be affected.

You only have a few days left - so order now!

Be quick to make the best of our current low low prices while you can still exercise your right to choose.

We will of course still be supplying UK and Irish customers but as of Sunday 25th January 2004 a surcharge of 3.00 Euros (£2.00) per CD will apply.

Please Note - our prices of DVDs and Games will remain unaffected

Warmest Regards,
CD WOW!

Glad to see the text of the mail says BPI are infringing our rights.

therecklessone · 22-01-2004 12:05PM

Received from CD Wow this morning:

Dear Member,

The UK Major record companies through their mouth piece the BPI* have unfortunately restricted the UK and Irish consumers right to enjoy the freedom of the World Wide Web.

As from this weekend, any CD ordered for delivery to the UK and Ireland will incur a surcharge as we are only able to deliver CDs manufactured within the EU (more expensive).

Delivery to the rest of the world will not be affected.

You only have a few days left - so order now!

Be quick to make the best of our current low low prices while you can still exercise your right to choose.

We will of course still be supplying UK and Irish customers but as of Sunday 25th January 2004 a surcharge of 3.00 Euros (£2.00) per CD will apply.

Please Note - our prices of DVDs and Games will remain unaffected

Warmest Regards,
CD WOW!

CD Wow loses / backs down

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