WOULD you pay $11.90 for a no-frills, original music CD?

The answer seems to be a resounding yes as consumers "lep" up the new, cheaper range now available from Universal Music Group.

The French-owned recording giant rolled out three tiers of CD packaging and prices - deluxe, standard and local edition presses (LEP) - in London in July. Retailing at $6 less than a standard-edition CD, LEP CDs maintain the same sound quality and are made in local markets.

The only difference is that consumers get a four-page booklet of song credits instead of the usual 16-page liner notes.

LEPs hit Singapore in October and already form 60 per cent of the label's CD sales here, says Mr Gary See, managing director of Universal Music Singapore.For example, Irish rock band U2's latest compilation album 18 Singles has sold 2,100 LEP copies to date, twice the number of standard-edition sales.

While deluxe editions are for releases by major artistes and come with bonus CDs or DVDs, standard editions and LEPs are for new album releases. Deluxe editions generally cost twice as much as LEPs.

"LEPs give consumers more choice and value, especially for those who just want the music," says Mr See.

Universal has 16 titles available in LEP, including American band Scissor Sisters' Ta-Dah! and British singer James Morrison's debut album Undiscovered. It plans to launch its artistes' albums in both LEP and standard-edition from next year.

LEPs were introduced to combat falling CD sales and cheap Chinese imports here,but is it an effort that is too little and too late?

Chinese-imported CDs of international artistes started appearing in music shops here two years ago and usually cost $9.90 each. That means these China-pressed originals cost half the price of CDs pressed here.

Since they appeared, recording companies here have reported a fall in sales of international titles by 20 to 30 per cent.

Five recording companies LifeStyle spoke to say they have no plans at the moment to follow in Universal's footsteps.

Ms Nikki Chee, marketing manager for the international department at Taiwan-based Rock Records, says CD sales have been dropping year-on-year for 10years or so.

"It's been affected by so many different things like piracy, cheap imports and digital downloads," she says.

However, Mr Tim Walker, director of leading British consumer research firm The Leading Question, says that initiatives like this are likely to help only with short-term revenues.

"The CD is a format in long-term decline," he says. "The challenge to the industry is to make legitimate digital propositions sufficiently appealing to consumers so that digital sales will grow strongly enough to compensate for falling physical sales."

About 420 million single tracks were downloaded globally last year. Sales of digital music, whether downloaded online or onto mobile phones,generated US$1.1 billion (S$1.7 billion) for record companies last year.Mr Dave Boo, managing director of Sembawang Music Centre, says: "Chinese imports haven't caused CD sales to fall. They've dropped simply because people are not buying new music."

Sembawang is now relying on sales of other products and will double its in-store stock of DVDs and VCDs next year from 20 per cent to 40 per cent. Still, LEPs may provide a glimmer of hope.

Other rivals are plugging new approaches. One major recording label that is taking tech-savvy music lovers on their own terms is Sony BMG. Since last year, it has been running campaigns with the telcos to encourage consumers to download tracks and ring tones from their mobile service providers.

The record label also runs contests regularly for consumers to meet their favourite artistes or attend overseas concerts.

Mr Jay Tan, senior marketing director of Sony BMG, explains: "Now we make artistes available in various ways - either online, in concert or in CD format."

It does pay to be inventive, for a Stomp poll last week revealed that 14 out of the 20 people surveyed said they would choose to buy LEPs over standard editions.

Still, there are old-school music buffs who believe that you pay for what youget.

Government hospital doctor Ong Xiaohui, 24, who buys at least one CD every month, says: "If I really like the artiste, I want the lyrics and everything. I don't mind paying more for that."