Ernie B?

[Bobbo]

Whah? Ernie B doesn't even carry Pressure sounds any more?

[Jay Money]

I found this strange when I noticed it late last year. Almost no CDs and all vinyl copies are "used" and about doubled in price. Maybe a distribution issue?

[Dubmart]

Many shops no longer carry PS either, basically their wholesale price is virtually the same as they charge on their web site, so after paying taxes and overheads, Ernie and shops would be charging much more than the PS site and not make many sales. I think it's a bad business model and PS should remember the shops who built up their sales and reputation during the 1990s when the internet wasn't around for them.

[Jay Money]

No wonder. I don't blame EB at all then. I have noticed that most, if not all, of new PS releases also come in digital format. I wonder if that's their new focus rather than physical media.

[Bobbo]

Good explanation, thanks.

[cvac]

I think Ernie B's, along with other shops, may be moving away from CDs in general. Right now they have a big sale going on, with a bunch of OOP Blood and Fire stuff marked down really cheap, along with a lot of other stuff.

[cvac]

No wonder. I don't blame EB at all then. I have noticed that most, if not all, of new PS releases also come in digital format. I wonder if that's their new focus rather than physical media.

I'm not opposed to digital releases, but labels need to offer FLAC or some other lossless format at competitive prices if they want serious listeners to buy them. In general, I don't buy mp3s if I'm looking for a digital version.

[ReggaeFire]

I think Ernie B's, along with other shops, may be moving away from CDs in general. Right now they have a big sale going on, with a bunch of OOP Blood and Fire stuff marked down really cheap, along with a lot of other stuff.

He's been selling off the remainders of the B&F stock (and many thousands of other CDs) at super cheap prices for many, many years now. In fact he does the same things with unsalable 45s as well, about 15 years ago I paid him something like $100 for 500 dancehall 45s. To be honest, I still haven't listened to 90% of them.

EB only deals in physical media, he has no reason to shun CDs.

[cvac]

He's been selling off the remainders of the B&F stock (and many thousands of other CDs) at super cheap prices for many, many years now. In fact he does the same things with unsalable 45s as well, about 15 years ago I paid him something like $100 for 500 dancehall 45s. To be honest, I still haven't listened to 90% of them.

EB only deals in physical media, he has no reason to shun CDs.

I've only been buying from EB for maybe 3-4 years. I didn't know the CDs had been marked down for that long. I've bought CDs from him before that were closer to regular prices, including a Yabby You CD on B&F.

Re: the dancehall 45s, that is insane.

Re: shunning CDs, my general point was that CDs don't sell as well as they used to, outside certain niche markets. Many local record stores near me and in other cities have severely cut back on CDs and only have small selections of used discs with the occasional CD boxset. A friend of mine runs an online records store (not reggae) and moved from 90% CDs in 2006 to 90%+ vinyl in the last ten years. Those of us in the 30+ crowd might still buy CDs and have substantial CD collections (I do) but a lot of younger music geeks won't even look at CDs. For teenagers and college age type listeners, it's streaming or vinyl.

[Lick It Back]

Pressure Sounds have changed their US distribution following a change in the way Ernie B wanted to deal with PS. So they still have US distribution.
CD sales are plummeting and vinyl sales are staying small but steady. The shipping of small quantities of vinyl can prove difficult from a financial perspective.
Download sales are also dropping with subscription models growing but that's like any service and is a volume game that delivers very little to the artist.
In the 1970's a single track sold for around £2.50 in today's money - so the cost of music today has dropped - in real terms - by about 90%. This of course makes it difficult business to be in when you pay artists properly and try and present music in better quality than it was ever heard at the time.
Scratch sold Blackboard Jungle Dub directly to people for £20, that's well over £200 in today's money - so the 200 or 300 he sold made him a whole heap of money........ah those were the days. And I doubt he got one complaint about audio quality or pressing issues...