Music Companies Convicted of Price Fixing Again

InspectorPraline writes "Providing more proof that the record industry is indeed a oligopoly, this article at the New York Times reports that two major record companies, Vivendi Universal and Warner Communications, have been convicted of price fixing by the FTC over a recording from 1998 of the Three Tenors. While Warner reached an agreement with the FTC about a year ago, Vivendi continues to deny wrongdoing and will, of course, appeal." The FTC's release is quite informative, describing the entire case.

Comments

Re:Defending the Record Companies in some Ways

[sokoban]

The above post is simply incorrect. Artists are usually given loans for promotional videos which have to be paid back to the record labels, also they can write off a lot of their promotion as business expenses. Also, record companies can't really pay to have videos or songs played, it's illegal. The truth is that record companies exist mainly to perpetuate themselves. Videos were created mainly to close the airwaves to anyone without the cash. Before videos, singles were the only real mass promotion channel and were cheap and easy to release. Now that you have to have a video in order to get airplay, the cost of entering the distribution channels has increased to levels where corporate power is needed to be popular. Thus, record companies discourage artists from being independent and force them to sign with a label so that they have a chance of being heard.

So shut up before I have to drop any more knowledge on your ass.

when

[fluxrad]

when are all the lovely people of this world going to wake up and realize that the only way to take back from the RIAA is basically piracy.

whine to the government all you want, but until some freak radioactive chemical is accidentally dumped on washington, causing every congressman to mutate into benevolent-o and slowly climb out of the back pockets of their contributors...NOTHING IS GOING TO COME OF IT!

sometimes you simply have to fight fire with fire.

Re:Jews control the music industry

[commodoresloat]

That explains it! Every time I try to download a Metallica song, I instead get an endless loop of Celine Dion singing "Hava Nagila."

Ooooooooh well.

[rice_burners_suck]

The music companies are a bunch of lousy bastards anyway. I hope they all go out of business. It might even be good for the world if new music had to be mastered, produced and marketed by the artists themselves. First of all, a lot of the bands out there couldn't even afford to do it, and they might go out and get real jobs. And since most new music sucks anyway, that wouldn't really be a problem at all. I'd say that damn near everything from 1990 onwards has sucked big time. Even Metallica! Yeah, their first four albums kicked ass, but the rest of their shit is just that: Shit! So what am I talking about? I say the government should simply shut down the RIAA and everyone involved. Just put them all out of a job. Make them sweep the streets or repair the pavement somewhere or something. That would actually be good for society. Kids wouldn't waste every penny they have on music, partly because music wouldn't cost so damn much, and partly because there'd be nothing to buy. Rap would die. Heavy metal... well, there hasn't been any good metal in years. Let me tell you something, that would be good for the whole damn economy. I'm not saying ban music... I ain't the cotton flippin taliban or something. I'm just saying, listen to the old stuff, because it had a lot of shit in it that new music doesn't have... namely skill and spirit. In other words, listen to most of the new music (especially if it involves electric guitars). What is it? It's a bunch of kids playing power chords because they don't know how to play a Gawd-damn guitar, and some of those kids have halfway-decent drummers, so it doesn't sound totally disgusting. And the lyrics are shit. So you know what? Let these assholes price fix all day long. Because in the end, I think they're a bunch of idiot bastard muthuf*ckus.

Ooooooooooooooooh well.

Re:/.'ers dissappoint me

[elflord]

Yes it costs a lot to make the stuff that goes onto a CD, but has that gone UP?

All prices go up, the price of paying salaries also goes up. It's called "inflation". The ignorant slashdot whiners have done a lot of whining, but posted no hard evidence that there is a rising trend in the cost of CDs relative to the cost of living.