Why are HD downloads so expensive?

Locally good used Cds are $1 to $3 with the majority at $2.
Om Amazon plenty of new stuff is in the $10 and under range. Box sets of to die for classical is five or six CDs for $20...
So the price differential is lager than posted. (though if you pay retail for Cds.. I guess not)
The original (back in 1983) idea was prices would come down on CDs once they got established. That NEVER happened. The prices wer kept high.
Only the glut and saturated market has reduced the price of new and used CDs.
As for downloads, natually is is a seller's market in hi def content. Not much available, and a demand is there. The music folks see the crazy prices folks pay for equipment to play hi rez, and charge accordingly.
IMO it is the same thing as cables. The higher price means it is better in plenty of folks minds. ( that it is actually better, probably.. just saying..)
As for the warhorses being sold over agin in high def. Well, that is the bread and butter of any media content. When they run out of stuff to be resold, then they start crying it is too expensive to continue. (which started when they discovered the Goldmine of reselling old content with the CD boom. Then DVD boom from VHS.)
So now they expect to make boatloads of money, automatically.
That is why hi def downloads are so expensive.

Overpriced, big time. $2000 turntable - Okay; $20 for one digital album - not Okay. The fair price would be $1 instead of $20. And cds are not worth anything these days; $3 is a rip-off.

Whether it's fair or unfair, aren't they just charging what the market will bare?

I agree that used CDs can be cheap locally, and the 'Zon often has good prices, as well as servicing good used vendors like goHastings. But 2 bucks used and 10 new is for the most part exceedingly optimistic, if you are looking for particular releases, esp. releases that are relatively obscure or recent. IME, 8 used and 12 new, anyway, for the kind of stuff I buy.

OTOH, HD tracks doesn't seem to have much of the stuff I buy, which is why I've not yet plunged.

John

I can't believe that people are complaining about price! Isn't this an audiophiles forum?

Go out and put your money where your mouth is and actually support higher quality music by buying from HD tracks!

Oh and stop stealing music through torrents - if it ain't worth paying for nobody is going to continue to provide media in high resolution.

The great thing about HD tracks is that the music is hardware proof - no need to buy an SACD player or a Blu-Ray player as in the case of other media!