Here’s the real reason the music industry is experiencing low sales.


__________________________

http://reuters.com/news_article.jhtm...toryID=1515099

The five largest music companies and the three largest music retailers will pay $67.4 million in cash to settle a CD price fixing case launched by New York and Florida two years ago, State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said on Monday.

In August 2000, 43 U.S. states and commonwealths said an industry practice called "minimum advertised pricing" (MAP), under which the labels subsidized advertising for retailers that agreed not to sell CD's below a minimum price determined by the labels, artificially inflated the price of CDs between 1995 and 2000, violating federal and state anti-trust laws.

The five record labels -- Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Bertelsmann AG's BMG Music Group, AOL Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Music Group and EMI Group PLC -- and the three retailers, Musicland Stores Corp., Trans World Entertainment Corp. and Tower Records, agreed to stop using MAP policies as part of the settlement.

Brad Maione, Spitzer's spokesman, said the companies would not admit any wrongdoing.

The cash settlement will be paid to the 43 states. The companies also agreed to distribute $75.7 million worth of CDs to public entities and nonprofit organizations in all 50 states.

----------------------------------------------

Here they call it price fixing. I call it larceny.

These 5 record labels are the same ones responsible for the lose of rights we are currently experiencing. The major impetus behind the DMCA. These are the same bunch of ass wipes who want to hack into your computer in the name of justice….criminals all. Conspiring against the people and demanding that our tax dollars protect their ill-gotten gains.