The punk label Fat Wreck, once the source of constant mockery of Mitch Clem's Nothing Nice To Say, has released NOFX's new album Coaster this week. The album is currently selling for under $10. That seems like a bargain when you're not talking about iTunes, and it's an even bigger deal to Fat Wreck, according to the label's website:

Oh, this is the important news: the NOFX record comes out today. What’s more important is that it will be priced under $10 in every store in North America. This is not a sale. This is how much this CD costs, and not only that, but EVERY CD on Fat Wreck Chords will now be under $10 and most will be under $8.

No, we are not crazy. We just think that having a very low CD price is a fair way for scene supporting music fans to support their favorite independent bands and labels. Sound crazy? I think it sounds reasonable. We make less profit, but bands hopefully will sell more CDs to more people, which is why we started doing this in the first place.

Lowering the prices of CDs, a constant argument for the failures of the RIAA and the success of iTunes, is a decent idea; Fat Wreck is not an RIAA member, so I it can experiment with this is in ways most labels that market bands like NOFX and the Dillinger Four cannot. Of course, the majors could easily use Fat Wreck's experiment as free market research; the success of the pop punk label's experiment remains to be seen.

[via Daily Swarm]