audio/data CDR (The New Digital Realm)

[rich <rich@nuvision.com>]

I recently bought a consumer level CDR (Pioneer 3cd changer on one side and
the burner on the other).  I bit the bullet and knew that the audio cd's
are more expensive due to the money being shared amongst the powers that
be.  I found it interesting though, that a month ago i went a bought a
10pack of audio CDR's for $28, and a few days ago, i went to the same store
and the same brand 10pack is now $22.  Are the Audio CDR's going through
the same price wars that the data CDR's are, despite the fact that there is
some additional money being skimmed off the top?

and i've even burned some loops, too, to be not completely OT.

rich


>luca wrote:
>
>> CDRs (for computers) cost less than Audio CDs.
>> I have been told this difference ( in Italy it is about 1/2  U.s. $ ) 
>is a
>> sort of tax that is payed to majors  or whatever because it is clear 
>that
>> people uses the specific Audio Cd to duplicate music.
>> Is this correct ?
>
>Yes and no. In the EU (or at least all countries that have already
>passed the recent set of EU bills into local law), there is a copyright
>fee both on Audio CDRs (i.e. CDRs recordable in consumer audio devices)
>and Data CDRs. The money is shared among all  national copyright boards
>responsible, and is further shared among their membership by whatever
>general distribution scheme each one has. In Germany, that would be GEMA
>(publishers, composers) and GVL (musicians and producers) in the case of
>Audio CDR, and GEMA, GVL, VG Wort (writers) and VG Bild (graphic
>artists) for Data CDR. The software industry is still struggling to get
>into the picture.
>
>> If yes, majors do protect their lost sells, and what about artists ?
>
>At least the GEMA and GVL use sales and airplay statistics to build
>their distribution schemes - you get points for each of these events,
>and get a corresponding share of the total at the end of each billing
>period.
>
>> ...I know that a guy duplicated one of my cds, but nobody gave me any 
>money
>> from the Cd for Audio he had used...
>
>How should they know what CD he had copied? Money from events that do
>not generate playlists (or where the value is too small to warrant
>collecting and evaluating data) is pooled and shared as explained above.
>The schemes are arguably unfair to artists catering for a special
>interest market, as their sales and airplay tend to be invisible to the
>GEMA data collectors, but OTOH, administering the whole thing at a level
>where it would observe microsales would be so expensive that they would
>get even less out of their membership.
>
>Sevo
>
>
>
>--
>Sevo Stille
>sevo@ip23.net