• Warner Faces Music Over Pricing

    Warner Faces Music Over Pricing

    Techtree News Staff, Dec 26, 2005 1207 hrs IST

    Warner Music has been subpoenaed by New York Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, in connection with a probe into pricing...

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Warner Music has been subpoenaed by New York Attorney General - Eliot Spitzer, in connection with an industry-wide investigation into the pricing of digital music downloads.

A spokes-person for Warner Music said that the company has received a subpoena from the Attorney General's office, and that Warner Music is "co-operating fully" with the investigation.

The office of the New York Attorney General was not available for comment, on the nature and scope of the investigation.

For some time now, the US music industry has been under fire for looking at increasing the cost of digital music downloads.

Industry sources say that the ongoing probe centres around whether the "Big Four," comprising Warner Music, Sony BMG, EMI Group and Universal Music will collude to set a whole-sale pricing for digital music downloads.

There is also a feeling that the investigation could be related to the music studios' licensing re-negotiations with Apple Computer, for its popular iTunes music store.

While on Apple's iTunes service US consumers pay a uniform amount of 99 cents per track, record labels have indicated that they want to institute "variable pricing" at the iTunes music store.

Edgar Bronfman, CEO, Warner Music, had said in September that not all songs are created equal, and that there are some songs for which consumers would be willing to pay more, and some songs that Warner would be willing to sell for less.

Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple Computer, countered, calling the music industry "greedy" for considering a hike in digital download prices. Jobs warned, that such a move could drive Apple iPod users towards piracy.

Interestingly, Warner Music last month agreed to pay $5 million to settle a separate New York state "pay-for-play" probe into how the music industry influences which songs are played on radio. While Sony BMG paid $10 million in connection with the same investigation, Universal and EMI have reportedly not yet settled scores.

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Discussion Board
P------
,Oxford, on Dec 27, 2005 11:03 AM
I don't think we should have to pay for any music or anything like that. You are all forgrtting we have to pay to use the internet. So why pay for the stuff we find on the internet. People are making way to much money on this and it is not right. You don't want us to get anything free.
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JERRY
,MONTANA, on Apr 24, 2006 10:40 PM
THAT'S THE DUMBEST THING i'VE EVER HEARD. HOW WOULD RECORD COMPANIES PAY TO HAVE THE MUSIC RECORDED IF THEY DIDN'T CHARGE ANYTHING FOR IT. THE FACT THAT YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR INTERNET IS IRRELEVANT. DOES THE FACT THAT YOU HAD TO PAY FOR A CAR MEAN THAT YOU SHOULD GET FREE FOOD AT A DRIVE-THRU?
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absar
,mumbai, on Dec 26, 2005 06:49 PM
We are on our way to be a corporatized nation just like the usa
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Shawn K. Smith
,Los Angeles, CA USA, on Dec 26, 2005 09:31 PM
Yes ... it's a beautiful thing! =)
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suman
,chennai, on Dec 26, 2005 01:58 PM
every big corporation, including samsung, microsoft, warner, disney, reliance, etc, have sought to twist the arms of the law and to seek bias in their favour by hook or crook. I do not hate microsoft, but i know that the anti trust cases against them are valid. I do not detest reliance, but i know that the complaints of subscribers against them are valid. I certainly do not harbour ill will towards warner or disney, but it id common knowledge that the CNN has, over the last few years, sought to portray the united states government as level-headed and bereft of colonial ambitions and oil pursuits, a claim that is as invalid as their breast-beating about spreading democracy. Disney has sought to retain overall rights for cartoons that it has long since sold to other parties in a "creator-patent" issue. All of this points to a few eventualities. Google is next in line to pay lots of money to settle some cases. Amazon is already settling many cases related to delivery charge and miscellaneous tax fraud. Ebay is settling cases by the dozen in various countries. This phenomenon is, by no means, an online community epidemic. Many brick and mortar companies have been known to use arm-twisting tactics and blatant bribery to get accross their objectives. Reliance petrochemicals is a case in point. The moral of the story - bigger the corporation, the lower the government's power over it; and even lower, the government's ability to save victims of the big corporations' tactics. remember samsung and their price-setting agreements? everyone cheats. leets not waste time reporting on it. After all, reliance is appealing in the supreme court for a fine of 172 crore rupees, when it has swindled 2000 crores of public money through various cheating schemes of RIM. I guess, even if they already have our 2000 crores, 172 crores is still 172 crores. greed knows no bounds.
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