Hi guys,

Just a quick comment on Disgusted’s rant above. If you pay R210 for a CD, this is most probably an imported disc. The disc is imported by the store itself, so this is why the cost is so high. They paid the price of buying it overseas and then imported it themselves. So you are paying for the disc, the shipping costs, the import duties and most proabably the foreign exchange loss (depending on timing of course)

Yes, most people may feel like R150 is a lot of money for an album, but I ask you this… I remember in 1998 a CD was just over R100 (if my memory serves me correct). Let’s call it R110. So CD prices have increased by about R40 in over 10 years. So call it R4 per year. That’s only 3.64%. I think you’ll find that is a similar price increase year on year than other similar products, such as computer games or movie DVD’s. I stand to be corrected on these prices, so feel free to comment. That’s how I remember them…

The price of music has definitely been affected by piracy, of that there is no doubt.

That aside, I completely agree with you. I feel that the Apple has absolutely no reason not to open a music store in South Africa. They have opened the application store for the iPhone and the iPod Touch, so the billing system is now in place, it’s just a case of getting the rights to distribute music in South Africa. And the record companies will never slow that process down as they stand to make some money for almost no effort. The artists will also benefit greatly, apple will make money. Hell, everybody wins. I really cannot understand why our money is not good enough.