Sunday morning amazement or why do TV boxed sets still exist
I was bored Sunday morning. To cure this, I decided to watch a few informercials. I saw one for a eight CD set of songs from the 50's called Oldies But Goodies. The informercial was hosted by a guy named Bowzer (who was annoying to say the least) and Julie Lancaster. (BTW, if anyone is reading, who are these people?). The deal offered throughout all of this was 158 tracks on ten CDs for "five easy payments" of $29.95. While watching all of this I began to wonder if this was really a good deal.
Most digital music services, such as iTunes, Napster, or Amazon offer individual songs for 99 cents or in Wal-Mart's case 88 cents. If I were to buy this with the "five easy payments" of $29.95, the entire price would come out to $149.75. Dividing the to total of the set by the number of songs reveals that each songs costs 94 cents each! This is five cents cheaper than iTunes, Napster, or Amazon and six cents cheaper than Wal-Mart. The offer also promised free shipping and handling to the first 500 callers. The S&H was 16.99 which combined with the price after the five easy payments is $166.94. Doing the math again, each song costs $1.05 which is more six cents more expensive than iTunes, Napster, or Amazon and 17 cents more expensive than Wal-Mart. With the S&H included, the savings costs you save before the S&H is gone!
This all leads me to ask why these these box sets still exist. While you save per song, it seems there is a high cost of admission to get the savings. Also, while these songs were hits, how many would the average person like? Not all of them, I think. If the world does move to digital downloads, I wouldn't mind seeing these sets go the way of the Dodo.
Bottom line: research and then spin the bucks.
Most digital music services, such as iTunes, Napster, or Amazon offer individual songs for 99 cents or in Wal-Mart's case 88 cents. If I were to buy this with the "five easy payments" of $29.95, the entire price would come out to $149.75. Dividing the to total of the set by the number of songs reveals that each songs costs 94 cents each! This is five cents cheaper than iTunes, Napster, or Amazon and six cents cheaper than Wal-Mart. The offer also promised free shipping and handling to the first 500 callers. The S&H was 16.99 which combined with the price after the five easy payments is $166.94. Doing the math again, each song costs $1.05 which is more six cents more expensive than iTunes, Napster, or Amazon and 17 cents more expensive than Wal-Mart. With the S&H included, the savings costs you save before the S&H is gone!
This all leads me to ask why these these box sets still exist. While you save per song, it seems there is a high cost of admission to get the savings. Also, while these songs were hits, how many would the average person like? Not all of them, I think. If the world does move to digital downloads, I wouldn't mind seeing these sets go the way of the Dodo.
Bottom line: research and then spin the bucks.
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