Major labels to face price-fixing lawsuit
Oh snap
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jan/11/major-labels-lawsuit
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According to the plaintiffs, Sony, EMI, Warner and Universal colluded to set an "artificial price floor" for music downloads, negotiating in turn with licensees and partners. In 2005, although labels had finished digitising their catalogues meaning reduced costs the majors raised prices from 65 cents (£0.42) to about 70 cents (£0.45) per song, court papers claim. Those prices are almost triple the rate charged by independent digital service eMusic (about $0.25 (£0.16) per track). The majors refused to work with eMusic, the world's second most successful online music store, until Sony and Warner negotiated deals with the service in 2009.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jan/11/major-labels-lawsuit
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According to the plaintiffs, Sony, EMI, Warner and Universal colluded to set an "artificial price floor" for music downloads, negotiating in turn with licensees and partners. In 2005, although labels had finished digitising their catalogues meaning reduced costs the majors raised prices from 65 cents (£0.42) to about 70 cents (£0.45) per song, court papers claim. Those prices are almost triple the rate charged by independent digital service eMusic (about $0.25 (£0.16) per track). The majors refused to work with eMusic, the world's second most successful online music store, until Sony and Warner negotiated deals with the service in 2009.
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Comments
Crap, I can't remember who's side I'm on...
I'm glad this is going through, but in the end it will have as much impact as when they were found guilty of price-fixing CDs - none.
Craig