Need Another Reason to Boycott the Majors?
This past week, 28 U.S. states filed suit against the five major labels and
three of the biggest retailers, demanding "hundreds of millions of
dollars" in damages. The lawsuit alleges that the labels and stores
were in direct violation of antitrust laws, illegally fixing prices to
the amount of 'several dollars profit' for each disc, keeping the
prices artificially high and penalizing retailers who did not
participate in the scam. This policy from the record labels was known
as MAP - minimum advertised pricing policy - where labels subsidized
advertising for retailers that agreed not to sell CDs below a minimum
price determined by the labels. In May, the five majors agreed to ban
this policy for seven years yet didn't admit any wrongdoing nor did
they pay any damages. "Because of these conspiracies, tens of millions
of consumers paid inflated prices to buy CD's..." says New York State
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. For those interested in continuing with
brainwashed on the temporary boycott, all five major labels are the
following:
- Time Warner (Warner Bros., Sire, Maverick, Atlantic, Elektra)
- Universal (Mercury, DefJam, Interscope)
- Sony Music (Columbia, Epic, Work)
- BMG (Jive, Arista, RCA)
- EMI (Capitol, Virgin)