Christian music fans not in the US...

Are any of you like me who don't live in the US feeling the high US dollar compared to your currency? I live in Canada and the Canadian dollar is only $0.73 US and a year or 2 ago it was upwards of $0.95 US. Canada is the fourth or fifth largest oil producer in the world, most of it coming off our coast of Newfoundland and out west in Alberta and the decline on our currency is mostly caused by the decline in oil prices, so they say. Even though gas is around $0.81-$0.89 a litre ($0.809 a litre if you shop at Costco) which is good, but it is more expensive to buy from the US. I am trying to get my music within Canada or at a local vendor lately. With Christian metal harder to find, I order most of it from the US previously. Lately I need to secure Canadian sources.

Is the currency of your country declining compared to the US dollar?

Do any of you now of any Canadian vendors that sell current and classic christian hard rock and metal music?

Have any of the US vendors noticed a decline in international sales from areas such as Canada because if the decline if the currency in that country like Roxx and Girder Music?

I feel your pain. I'm in Australia and the currency exchange is currently 1 aussie dollar buys 0.72 cents US.

I have hardly made any online purchases from the US in the last couple of years. Very oddly Rowe Productions based in Australian only seems to sell items in USD. I have therefore not been buying anything from them either. Even though I would like to support the exchange rate is prohibitive.

Well, we are facing a huge recession due to economic and political crisis. The inflaction and unemployment rates are increasing rapidly, and it impacted our currency.

Just for you to have an idea, each brazilian real worth US$0,245.

And even digital music is currently very expensive, as most of them charge us in US$. I am only purchasing music from my favorite bands, only one per month. Just for you to have an idea, I didn't even purchased the Stryper last album.

To make things worse, we do not have any company distributing good quality christian metal here. All the companies that did it went bankrupt a few years ago, due to the decrease in the cd market, not to mention that it was cheaper to import, as our currency was much stronger than it is now. (1 brazilian real was about US$0,65).

Interesting, I have never thought of this. There is a vendor I buy record albums from on eBay and they are based in Canada (soundcitybeaches). Their records are usually priced lower than Amazon and the shipping is only $3.22 US dollars. So I can buy an album from them for around $18-20 US dollars and then pay $3.22 shipping and it is still cheaper than buying it somewhere else.... I wonder why I don't get charged for extra shipping when buying from Canada? 

When I bought the Impellitteri "Venom" CD it came from a Canadian vendor. I paid $15.99 for it and it said "free shipping". So I figured $15.99 was a pretty good deal for a new CD. However, when I looked at my bank account I saw "Foreign ACH fee - $5.00". Found it kind of odd because I had ordered tons of stuff from SoundCityBeaches and had never paid anything extra (don't remember who I bought Venom from but it came from Canada). I asked the vendor about it and they showed me where they only charged me $15.99... The 5 bucks was from my bank for some reason. I thought "For $20.99 this better be a good CD!". Luckily it was and one of the best of 2015.

Thiago-Brazil wrote:
To make things worse, we do not have any company distributing good quality christian metal here.

Metal Survivor (formerly Extreme Records) in Brazil is going strong and has a magazine. (Heaven's Banger) That's something the US doesn't even have. A MAGAZINE for Christian extreme metal.

http://metalsurvivor.net

Thiago-Brazil wrote:not to mention that it was cheaper to import, as our currency was much stronger than it is now. (1 brazilian real was about US$0,65).

That's not what I was told. I let Metal Survivor do an exclusive pressing of one of my albums because IMPORT/EXPORT is impossible because "customs is so crooked".

At least that's what they told me.

It's hard to get things into Canada at a decent price.

I have switched mainly to digital as long as I can find Lossless downloads. Which is hard since no one really offers lossless downloads, and if you email the band to ask, they ignore you

It still expensive this way because of the low Dollar, but with shipping costs going up higher and higher, its a compromise I'm living with for now.

Main problem i'm seeing is lots places thinks it costs $15US+ to ship 1 CD to Canada!

Here in the Netherlands it's almost impossible to buy from American companies without paying sky high shipping costs. Buying a The Crucified 7" for 4,99 gives me a shipping fee of 8,99 and and a 12" LP even 18,99! Fortunately European companies release more and more Chr metal, even non-christian companies, so that's a plus. 1 euro gives me $1,11, so at least that's in our favour.....

I'm in the UK. About 6 months ago it was about $1.55 to £1. It's now at around $1.40. The Euro has also got more expensive, it was around 1.40 to £1, now it's around the 1.27 mark.

Shipping from the US is hugely expensive, which is why I generally don't bother. If a US band I really like releases something, I'll normally just buy the download off bandcamp (CD quality).

Nyx74 wrote:1 euro gives me $1,11, so at least that's in our favour.....

Euro has been plummeting down for a while now, but it's a bit better now than what it was a year or two ago.


Today if I buy something worth $100, it costs me about 90-91 euros.
When it was at its worst a year or two ago, it cost me 96 euros.

Now, comparing this to what we had 4-6 years ago... If I bought something worth $100 back then, it cost me only 74 euros. I ordered lots of music and movies from the US back then... Not so much today.

ThomasEversole wrote:

Thiago-Brazil wrote:
To make things worse, we do not have any company distributing good quality christian metal here.

Metal Survivor (formerly Extreme Records) in Brazil is going strong and has a magazine. (Heaven's Banger) That's something the US doesn't even have. A MAGAZINE for Christian extreme metal.

http://metalsurvivor.net

Thiago-Brazil wrote:not to mention that it was cheaper to import, as our currency was much stronger than it is now. (1 brazilian real was about US$0,65).

That's not what I was told. I let Metal Survivor do an exclusive pressing of one of my albums because IMPORT/EXPORT is impossible because "customs is so crooked".

At least that's what they told me.

Good to know. I didn't know they even existed. However, they look to be more focused on extreme metal.

Regarding the import taxes, it is a double-edge sword. They exist and yes, it is expensive. But there are also lots of taxes for national products in our country.
In my maths, when 1 brazilian real is bigger than US$0,50, it usually worth to import goods. Not only cds, but watches, sun glasses, almost everything (even cars, but it was kind of complicated due to all the bureacracy involved).

Of course, it all depends on the value of the things you are going to import. A couple of years ago, for instance, there was a law for imported goods orders free of taxes up to US$50,00.

I haven't heard anything regarding import/export TAXES of Brazil. The "crooked customs" remark (again, this is what I've been told from Metal Survivor) has to do with incoming or outgoing items DISAPPEARING.

I have the same problem here in Sweden. Physical copies are hard to find and too expensive to buy from the States because of the high shipping fees or customs taxes. I would LOVE to buy more digital music but there is only a few good ones out there like CDbaby, Emusic and Bandcamp who have a good catalogue of christian music. I like to support the artists and the easiest way for me is to buy it digital.

The prices for CD's in the U.S however is cheap compared to here in Sweden were I have to pay almost 22 dollars for a CD.

Thiago, you know that 'Fallen' was released in Brazil too ?

I used to import many CDs from the U.S. until the shipping costs to Europe suddenly exploded. Now I very rarely buy directly from shops in the U.S.. However I  buy alot from distributors at the german or U.K. amazon marketplace who import the CDs.