Diana Ross Lost Album from The Wiz to be released Nov 27

[calvin]

For the most part, I think the points made above are valid. Those who don't want to buy it as a download shouldn't. Personally, I wouldn't buy something I don't want just to support Universal Music, they're not a charity and you can't expect them to return the favour by producing a title the fans want but on which they expect to lose money.

As for myself, I didn't like it when we were only offered lossy downloads in place of cds, but as long as we can buy lossless downloads [[which have the same sound quality as the cd), I'm ok with it. In fact, I'm almost indifferent - when I have a choice between a cd and a lossless download, I might buy the download if it's significantly cheaper than the cd [[though strangely, the lossless downloads are usually more expensive than the cds in such cases). In some cases there are still issues with downloads not being made available in the UK, which is unfortunate.

If "Funny Girl" were released tomorrow as a cd, I wouldn't buy it, as I already bought the lossless download. And I guess I'm not the only one who feels this way. So now that it's been out for a while as a download, and most people who wanted it have already purchased it, don't hold your breath for the cd.

No, it doesn't cost a lot to make a cd. The marginal cost of the first cd produced is substantial [[and probably higher at Universal than at Ace), but the marginal cost of each additional unit [[for example, the extra cost of producing 3001 instead of 3000 units) should be very small. But there are still other costs with cds that you don't have with downloads, such as storing the inventory, shipping to retailers, refunding damaged items and unsold units, etc.

Universal knows their sales figures and profits from the expanded edition cds, while we can only guess. I do know that some series were cancelled due to poor sales, for example the Smokey Robinson solo album series. [[I'm happy that they completed that series with downloads!) If Universal had been making decent profits through cd sales, they wouldn't have stopped. Apparently, in the judgement of the [[business) people making the decisions, they think that downloads are the better way to go.

At the same time, note that they seem to be experimenting with a new approach through PledgeMusic with the Motortown Revue in Paris Super Deluxe Edition. So perhaps the decision to go with downloads over cds for future releases is not final [[though it apparently is final for this particular release). So far, though, they only have about 300 pledges.