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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!brl-tgr!tgr!vortex!lauren@RAND-UNIX.ARPA
From: lauren@RAND-UNIX.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: CD-ROMs
Message-ID: <1777@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 27-Sep-85 19:17:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.1777
Posted: Fri Sep 27 19:17:50 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 1-Oct-85 11:21:22 EDT
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
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The actual cost of CD's in moderate quantities is somewhere around
$1.60 each, including blister packing, for time runs under one hour.
However, the mastering costs have to be included also, which run in the
thousands of dollars and are normally spread across all disks made from
a particular master.

But the cost of a CD itself really has very little to do with the cost
of the product.  The vinyl in a conventional record costs about 25 cents.
People charge for the perceived VALUE of the information.  As I've pointed
out in the past, if someone sells (for example) a database for $1000
on paper, they're not likely to be selling it on CD for $10.  The information
is the thing with the value, not the medium.  In fact, I would expect
some databases to be MORE expensive on CD's, since there will be a
perception that online access gives the buyer more "value" from the
data, and might increase the risk of pirate copies of the data floating around
as well.  I know of one major database publisher, now starting to
publish on CD's, who definitely has that point of view.

So don't worry about how much a CD itself costs; think about how
much the information providers will charge for the information!

--Lauren--


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