piaptk wrote:Well, it is an ongoing concern, BUT, Kris D found a 1950s audiodisc price guide and, just for giggles, applied the prices to an inflation calculator, and all of the prices came out less than a dollar above or below.
Ive toured Apollo a couple times and talked to them at length. They make almost no profit on styli, only manufacture them to keep the lacquer business's going. And that is no easy business. The lacquers are manufactured in a clean room and ride around the entire warehouse on a hermetically sealed conveyor belt twice to dry.
Lacquers are expensive, and it sucks. But so is the equipment to make them, the chemists to mix to the lacquer, the aluminum, etc etc.
If somebody complained about the $300 you charge them to master the record, you would say the same thing as Apollo would. Everybody does specialized jobs and tKes a well deserved markup for their labor and expertise.
