Why recordable CDs cost more than recordable DVDs
If you browse the recordable media isle at your local big box store you might notice that, generally speaking, a spindle of 100 recordable DVDs (DVD-R or DVD+R) costs about the same as a spindle of 50 recordable CDs (CD-R or CD+R).
If you browse the recordable media isle at your local big box store you might notice that, generally speaking, a spindle of 100 recordable DVDs (DVD-R or DVD+R) costs about the same as a spindle of 50 recordable CDs (CD-R or CD+R).
Um, since recordable DVDs can hold about 6.7 times more data than recordable CDs, shouldn’t they cost more?
So we asked Steven Mizelle, President of Kodak Media Products, how this can be.
Mizelle confirmed the price difference is related to the tax Canadians have to pay on blank CDs, which allegedly goes into a slush fund of sorts, to compensate musicians for lost revenues due to piracy.
Here’s his official response:
Canada has a CD "levy" that charges 22 cents per disc to any importer bringing CDs into Canada. Their assertion is that the music artists lost much revenue/earnings because consumers were downloading music illegally to discs and the artists were not collecting their royalties. The 22 cent fee goes to the watchdog group that collects the royalty and is used to a) enforce the levy and b) to pay something to the artists. DVDs have no such levy in Canada.
Well, there’s your answer.
On a related note, later this week we’ll talk with Dr. Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, to confirm whether or not it’s legal to download music you didn’t pay for in Canada. Stay tuned!
I have been asking that question for quite some time now. I usually buy a couple bundles of blank cd's when I'm down in the US and save quite a bit. Thanks for the informative answer.
It's just another tax we Canadians must love to pay, we have so many of them
Just another tax on something that is not used for the purpose they taxed it for, as far as we are concerned. We take pictures with a digital cameras at weddings we are hired to take video at. Those pictures are given to the couple on a CD. Do tell me, what copyright law is broken here. Royalties, where are mine? We should at least get a rebate if we can prove that no copyrights are broken.
Mr. Mizelle states: "The 22 cent fee goes to the watchdog group that collects the royalty and is used to a) enforce the levy and b) to pay something to the artists." It's very interesting to note that there is nothing specfic about how much goes to the artists. Something?? 20 cents? 15 cents? I would bet it is 2 cents or less. I would feel better about paying this tax if I knew for sure that 15 cents OR MORE went DIRECTLY to the artists. A year or so back, Cheap Trick was initiating a class action lawsuit against the legit online music sites because artists were supposed to get 50% of the fee charged per song but the reality was that of the 99 cent fee they were getting less than a nickle !!!
This inequitable levy is also charged on cassette tapes. I know of several church–and I'm sure there are many–that record the Sunday morning service to distribute to the shut-ins.
I also buy CDs when in the U.S. to avoid paying this tax.
Remember: "When Corporations act like bandits–don't be surprised when their customers act like pirates!"
It's true, CD-R are expensive now. I went to buy some cd-r so i can storage some data (not that big for a dvd) and they cost almost double as they used to cost. Then when I asked about it, the retail seller told me exactly what u just read here. TO be honest, it is really stupid. Almost nobody record audio cds anymore. People rather use mp3 players, phones or Ipods, I have 3 ipods myself, well, good luck selling those cd-rs.
This whole idea is ridiculous. A 50 pack of quality HP CD-Rs used to cost $20 and now I find a 25 pack of HP CD-Rs for the price of $33. An this is before the Canadian sales tax. Blanks DVDs are way cheaper. It’s just that some old computers only have or can make use of a CD writer drive. But this extra cost on blank CDs is like punishing people for a crime they may not even do. I have to agree that we as Canadians pay way more than the U.S. for the same goods and have so many ridiculous taxes.
I was just at Staples the other day: $19 for a 50 pack of Sony DVD-Rs, against $40 for a 50-pack of whateverbrand CD-Rs. How ridiculous is that?
It would appear that the canadian government is creating a tax on a supposition…A sopposition that im going to download music…are cd’s only for music downloads…i think not…therefore their taxing a supposition and not a bonified fact…And do you really think that any percentage of that tax actually goes to artists…another supposition that is highly unlikely knowing governments of the day…..