The Music Cartel Owes You Money

[snarkyman]

If you live in the US and purchased any prerecorded compact discs, cassettes and/or vinyl albums from one or more retailers during the period January 1, 1995, through December 22, 2000, you are eligible to collect between $5 and $20 from the recording industry.

See Compact Disc Minimum Advertised Price Antitrust Litigation Settlement for more information. You can complete the web form here.

You have to answer three questions and give them a fair bit of personal information, so be forewarned.

Comments

My claim's in!

[sapphorlando.livejournal.com]

'Bout freakin' time someone came down on these greaseballs. From my own (inside) view on the industry, I've known for years that there is no defensible reason that a CD should cost what it does; considering that it costs about a buck to make--can anyone else think of an industry that sees over 500% profit on every sale? (Normal wholesale is around $7.)

Years ago, when the first CDs rolled out, the industry explained that the first generation of discs would have to cost this much, to offset the development and initial manufacturing layouts, and we accepted this. They also promised that over time, as volume increased and sales expanded, that unit costs would trend downward. They did not. They never came down. In fact, they went up. Not a whole lot, but given the broadening radio between manufacturing cost and retail price, the final sale added up to well over 1000% of the original cost. That's quite a markup.

The proposed settlement includes agreements to amend retail pricing and marketing practices. Maybe, finally, we'll see that long-ago promise fulfilled.