by Universal Music Group, Sony Music, BMG Music Group, Warner Music Group, EMI Group, Musicland Stores, Trans World Entertainment and Tower Records settled a lawsuit alledging price fixing of CDs over a 6 year period. Read about it in the Yahoo News.
Of course, they admit no wrongdoing – who does these days? But any tracker of technology knows music prices have been held artificially high since the introduction of CDs fifteen years ago.
These is the same industry that is attempting to stifle digital innovation by squashing the MP3 movement. The fact is, these companies and their services are anachronisms whose usefulness has been outlived. Witness Rik Emmett, former frontman for the power trio Triumph. He basically does all of his own production work now himself. No big record label, no 7 year contract, no compromises. Check it out, he’s never sounded better. The same could be true for many musicians, if we were free of the music biz as it is.
