![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
Exactly, at the very least to break-even, if they're someone like me, who doesn't really care about making money and is about the music. It's at least nice to break-even. Studio time, pressing, PR and distribution does cost money.
We're printing CD's right now and it's costing us a hell of alot more than $1.90 a Cd/
Don't know what press you're using, but depending on how you're having it pressed, it shouldn't be "a lot more" than that, unless you're pressing a digipack.
But, if people want to know, it can cost between $1.50-$3.00 (for a double CD or special digipack) per CD to press. At the very least, it's about $1.50 U.S. per CD, plus the cost of shipping CDs if you're selling them yourself, or paying for the man-hours if you have a staff. To be honest, even at $15 a pop, neither the artist or label makes all that much of a profit after shipping, staff and PR costs.
If the artist is releasing it themselves at $15 (which isn't usually the case for artists who self-release, because they're not retarded, generally), maybe they'll make about $10 (max) profit, best case scenario.
If it's being released by a label who releases many bands, at about $15/CD, between their cut and the above-mentioned costs, usually the artist would be lucky to see $.50-$1.00 (maximum) on the CD, which is a pretty standard contractual rate. That's it.
For truly "major" artists, $3 on a CD (maybe slightly more for really huge acts), and that's for only maybe some very, very large acts.
Even "bigger" bands cant live off music as it is, the most money coming from playing shows, and most "real people" still have to have regular jobs. Unless you're Eminem, Brittney Spears, Michael Jackson (ugh), The Rolling Stones etc., you're never going to make an actual living off of music. So, cutting CD prices that radically will definitely hurt the "smaller" bands, whether they're doing it for the music or not.
I do believe that prices could be lowered, I always felt that maybe around $6-$9 would be appropriate (and what I've sold CDs for), but not simply as a way to "reduce piracy", as no company should be forced to lower the price of anything just because too many people want something for nothing/are cheap and selfish.
For those seriously trying to make a living off their art, that's great, but almost impossible. However, that doesn't mean that they shouldn't receive any royalties from their art, which is what would happen if CDs were sold for $1.60 per... actually, the entire industry wouldn't exist if they did something that extreme.
