A common claim by the copyleft is that CD retail prices are higher than they should be and that they would constantly be driven ever higher if it weren’t for the fact that record labels have to compete with downloading. Statistics from the RIAA indicate that, when you divide CD units shipped by CD dollar value, the average price of a CD in 1995 was $12.97, and in 2005 it was $14.92, an increase of 15 percent. The annual consumer price index (adjusted so that the 1982-1984 values equal 100) was 152.4 in 1995, compared with 2005 in 195.3, an increase of 28 percent. The conclusion is obvious: when you control for inflation, CD prices have actually decreased over the past several years.

If you don’t like these figures because they came from the RIAA, look at this footage of REM on David Letterman in 1983. Letterman talks to the band for a minute or two and it’s revealed that their then-current album, Murmur, was being sold for $6.99 whereas other new albums tended to be sold at the time for $8.99. With a CPI of about 100 in 1983, that means that 2005’s average CD price of $14.92 was closer to the low price the band liked (equivalent to $13.65 in 2005 dollars) than the record companies’ $8.99 (equivalent to $17.56 in 2005 dollars).

Yet the conventional wisdom seems to be that CD prices are escalating rapidly. Go into a Barnes and Noble and you might see new releases being sold for almost $20! Well, that’s retail, the kind of retail where some people seem to actually feel proud of themselves for paying markups. The people that $20 new releases are intended for are the same type of people who happily pay $100 for some article of clothing that will probably end up on the clearance racks a few months later for less than $30.

If you shop around for new releases, or, better yet, not restrict your listening habits to music that was made in the past six months, it’s easy to find quality CD’s being sold online for well under $10 on Amazon or Ebay, including shipping charges. And virtually any CD that sells millions of copies will eventually show up for less than $5. That’s $5 for a brand new, sealed copy, inclusive of shipping charges. Just to pick an example, there are currently 45 used copies of the first Sheryl Crow album, most in at least very good condition, on Amazon for less than $3.00, inclusive of shipping charges. A new copy was available for $4.59, inclusive of shipping charges. Naxos has a built a successful label selling classical CD’s with a retail price of around $7-8, and again used copies can be had for much less. Although the record companies may have fought the practice of selling used CDs many years ago, they have since accepted it. If consumers want an album of legal music for less than $5, usually all they have to do is wait a little while and buy it from an Internet site like Amazon.

And then there’s the world of free and legal music available online. MySpace music, individual band sites, and most record labels offer edits, single tracks, or even entire live shows up for free. It often makes sense from a marketing standpoint to attract potential fans by giving them something for free in the hopes that they’ll buy an album for a fee. Some bands will even offer entire studio albums for free in the hopes that it will attract a live following. Even if you don’t ever want to pay for music, there is plenty of good and free music out there that can be obtained legally. With all of this legal and free music, is it really so much to ask for people to not download music illegally? And is it really so much to ask for people to respect those who want to charge $10 or $15 for a CD?