I used to be a naive DIY hobbyist who was outraged by how much more expensive commercial products were compared to the parts cost.
But of course what you say is true. Electronic and software design, physical design, productisation, marketing, distribution, packaging, support, business premises, logistics, and backup business services (payroll, accounting) all cost money. Even a nominal markup of 40% may not be enough to cover those expenses.
Selling at scale - even at small scale - is completely different to buying a bag full of bits and assembling them with a soldering iron.
Having said that - audio and music are particularly susceptible to snake oil. Never mind all the cable nonsense, you can literally buy magic pebbles and boxes full of rocks to "improve" your audio.
The people in those markets are either delusional or knowingly scamming their customers.
At some point branding and market positioning become the biggest driver of perceived value, and spending $$$$$$ just to prove you can - under the pretext of "purer sound" - becomes an exercise in consumer narcissism. In the classic Veblen mode, the product being sold isn't the item, it's the consumer's perception of themselves. And some people will pay huge sums for that.
Which is you can buy magic hifi rocks, magic watches that don't tell the time very well, magic handbags, and all manner of other trinkets, for very silly prices.
I think that response is natural especially for anyone who builds things, software or otherwise.
But my mindset completely changed after listening to a lot of economics stories on planet money. There was this dude who tried to make a simple toaster on his own, down to refining metal. None of us can make even the simplest consumer product, let alone an consumer electronic product economically.
This seems similar as the point made in the well known essay I, Pencil (1958)[1]. You can buy a box of pencils in Staples for something like $0.10 apiece. But no individual, and probaly no small businesses would be capable of making some pencils from raw material (skipping even the step of harvesting the raw material).
Ironically a box of rocks will probably "improve" (well affect) your audio more than a cable will. As sounds does bounce off objects.
That being said there are cheap, worthless cables as well. I'll pay a bit more for a cable where they connection won't fall off after two uses.
Having not watched the video but having read the 8 reasons, I’ll throw #9 on the list: I have reasonably high confidence that if I screw up, it’s not likely to explode in my face. Maybe that’s just marketing, but I’ve seen more than one low cost multimeter get turned into a puddle of melted plastic.
But of course what you say is true. Electronic and software design, physical design, productisation, marketing, distribution, packaging, support, business premises, logistics, and backup business services (payroll, accounting) all cost money. Even a nominal markup of 40% may not be enough to cover those expenses.
Selling at scale - even at small scale - is completely different to buying a bag full of bits and assembling them with a soldering iron.
Having said that - audio and music are particularly susceptible to snake oil. Never mind all the cable nonsense, you can literally buy magic pebbles and boxes full of rocks to "improve" your audio.
The people in those markets are either delusional or knowingly scamming their customers.
At some point branding and market positioning become the biggest driver of perceived value, and spending $$$$$$ just to prove you can - under the pretext of "purer sound" - becomes an exercise in consumer narcissism. In the classic Veblen mode, the product being sold isn't the item, it's the consumer's perception of themselves. And some people will pay huge sums for that.
Which is you can buy magic hifi rocks, magic watches that don't tell the time very well, magic handbags, and all manner of other trinkets, for very silly prices.