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As for getting a download only version cheaper than the DVD version, I'd guess that bandwidth and download charges are as much as the cost of duplication so I don't see how it could be any cheaper.



Not at all. If that were the case than youTube, Netflix, Vimeo and every other content site would never have started.

Like with most products and services, there is a huge gap between retail pricing and business/wholesale pricing. So for a business, you can get a dedicated server for under $150 per month with much higher download speed and unmetered maximum bandwidth. If pgmusic had so much volume that the unmetered traffic was clogging the T1 line or whatever pipe was being used, then they could just get another dedicated server. But even so, that amount of traffic would imply huge product purchases. Just get a few more servers. Most likely, they contract with specialist hosts for the peak downloads, as many other publishers when they release a new product.

The biggest cost of duplication is the people, not the materials. Whether you do it inhouse or outsource, the expense is people. If you use machines, to send physical product, that costs capital. At the end of the day, sending physical product is expensive and in contrast, download costs start to approach zero per unit at larger unit volumes over fixed costs. Physical product, which has to be estimated, produced, wharehoused, handled, and then shipped, will always cost much more than downloads.

There is also the environmental advantage in not cutting trees, plastic, glues, oil for transportation etc.
It's almost like this new internet thing is fundamentally changing business models or something. Now that's change that you can believe in.

Finally, I have found a cool signature with sufficiently dry humor.