CDs are about to become a lot cheaper with an announcement by music retailer HMV that it is cutting prices.
On back catalogues from popular artists like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Bob Marley, Metallica and U2, the cuts could be high as $10 per CD.
Effective immediately, prices will drop an average of 20 per cent, with some titles reduced as much as 33 per cent, HMV reported in a press release.
HMV, Canada's biggest music retailer, is billing the move as a result of demand by consumers for lower CD prices.
But Graham Henderson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association, says it's an effort to stem the tide of illegal downloading that threatens retailers and everyone else in the recording industry.
"The effect is to put CDs in a price range that will attract more people," Henderson said.
Retailers such as HMV are suffering from plunging sales of CDs, Henderson said.
The price cuts are deepest on older recordings, in an effort to keep baby boomers buying CDs, and stem illegal downloading of older recordings, which is on the rise.
"Canada has the highest rate of illegal downloading in the world," he told CBC News. "It's affecting our ability to build a digital industry."
Other countries, including the U.S. and Britain, have been able to stem the tide of illegal downloading by updating laws and increasing enforcement, he said, but calls from the recording industry for updated copyright laws in Canada have gone unheeded.
"A succession of Canadian governments have sat on their hands and done nothing," he said.
