Libraries add CD selections

MAT-SU -- Hundreds upon hundreds of boxes packed with free music CDs, arrived at libraries across the state over the last three weeks, with each of the seven libraries in the Mat-Su Borough receiving 111 new CDs.

The new merchandise is part of a nationwide, $145-million antitrust settlement between 41 states, including Alaska, and some of the largest music companies and music retailers in the world.

The five largest music companies and three of the United States' largest music retailers agreed to pay $67.4 million to private individuals and distribute $75.7 million in CDs to nonprofit groups to settle a lawsuit brought against them in August 2000.

The suit alleged that powerful music industry companies illegally fixed the price of recorded music in the 1990s. The lawsuit claimed that consumers paid unfair prices for music when music distributors restricted CD advertising so that large retail outlets like Wal-Mart and Target could not advertise CDs for less than what distributors suggested.

This kept the price of CDs artificially high for consumers and limited the ability of the large retailers to drive down prices through discount sales.

Defendants in the case included industry giants Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, Bertelsmann's BMG Music and EMI Group, plus retailers Musicland Stores, Trans World Entertainment and Tower Records. They agreed to give CDs to all 50 states, according to population size.

"We entered the settlement a year ago," Alaska Assistant Attorney General Ed Sniffen said. "It was a nationwide settlement and we were one of the last states to receive the CDs."

Sniffen said each state received a percentage of CDs, based on its overall population. Three weeks ago, 12,282 CDs began arriving in Alaska to be distributed throughout the state.

Sniffen said he worked with the state librarian to come up with a plan to distribute the CDs.

"It's very difficult to figure out ways to return products to consumers after antitrust suits," Sniffen said. "Having the public benefit is always tricky. How do you get money back to consumers?"

The CDs had to be distributed to nonprofit groups, but each state was free to decide how best to do that.

"The states are all doing something a little different," Sniffen said. "Here, we decided that it made the most sense to have CDs go to different libraries."

All told, 84 Alaska libraries will receive a broad mixture of CDs, including country, bluegrass, jazz, blues, classical, pop/rock and other categories. The CDs were divided by population size, with the largest libraries receiving the lion's share of music.

Librarians from seven Mat-Su Borough libraries attended a cataloging class Tuesday to learn how to best organize music.

While the CDs add a new element to many of the libraries, the assistant manager of the Palmer Public Library, Jeanne Novosad, said much of the music, which came in four separate boxes, is older material.

"We've got a lot of pop/rock from the 70s and 80s," she said. "Some of this stuff looks like it was in a warehouse for quite a while."

Old or not, music CDs are a new addition to the Palmer library and Novosad expects there will likely be more to come.

"We had a shelf donated to us for CDs, last year," Novosad said, "and we will probably be adding more music to our collection now that we are cataloguing these."

Kathy Petrie, youth services librarian at Wasilla Public Library, said the library only had about 20 to 30 CDs before the new arrivals.

"It could be a few days to a few months before the CDs are available," she said. "We just looked through them this morning."

Contact Joel Davidson at joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.