Re: News: Universal Music to Cut CD Prices to Under $13

[Kurt Albershardt]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/7/32690.html

[Bill G.]

CIMS President Don Van Cleave Expresses Reservations About UMG's New
Price Plan

September 4, 2003

After expressing cautious optimism regarding UMG/ UMVD's new JumpSTART
pricing plan (see <http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/news/newsPage.cgi?news04594m01>story,
9/4), Coalition of Independent Music Stores President Don VanCleave
thought better of his remarks after seeing UMVD's letter to retailers
detailing how the plan will work. Below is a letter Van Cleave
e-mailed us today.

HITS,

After living with UMVD's proposal for about 24 hours, I must insist
that you remove me from your website article where you state that
retail endorses the move. Yesterday, when I first heard about the
drop, I was happy that someone finally had the guts to make a move.
But, now that I see the details, I have grave concerns.

In the agreement, UMVD asks our stores to do things that are totally
impossible for independent stores to comply with. They ask us to
dedicate a large percentage of our promotional space and bin space to
their products each month in exchange for the opportunity to buy at
the lower cost.

The very nature of a store being "independent" is that they choose
what to promote based on customer tastes and not necessarily label
priorities. We have to understand what is truly expected of us before
we can endorse this move. I stand undecided at this point.

Don VanCleave
President, Coalition of Independent Music Stores

[John LeBlanc]

"Bill G." > wrote in message
om...
> CIMS President Don Van Cleave Expresses Reservations About UMG's New
> Price Plan

Ah. And the other shoe drops. Figures, doesn't it?

John