More Opposition for the Recording Industry – The Consumer Electronics Association and the National Association of Recording Merchandisers have stepped up to bat against the music labels citing consumer rights issues and unfair business practices. Digital music companies have expressed similar concerns over the last two years, and welcome the support of these traditional powerhouse organizations that represent hardware manufacturers and retail outlets. Vice president of Tower Records Mike Ferrace stopped short of accusing the labels of collusion when he described the way they’ve been conducting their businesses online:

“Bertelsmann buys CDNow, which has a strategic relationship with Time Warner, which wants to cross-license movies with Sony, which has a subscription service project with Universal called Duet, which has a joint venture called GetMusic with BMG.”

This type of cross-licensing content between record labels and movie companies is their way of trying to cut retailers out of the picture, killing competition, and giving entertainment corporations a monopoly of control over distribution. If the future of music distribution is digital, I can certainly see why retailers would be pissed about this type of activity. Hillary Rosen, CEO of the RIAA gave the predictable argument that the recording industry, instead of working to develop business models , has been forced to fight to protect its intellectual property blah blah blah… and that the speed of technological development has made the record companies gun-shy blah blah blah… Hey butt-munch – the technology was around long before the lawsuits came about – the current state of music distribution came about BECAUSE the recording industry was doing NOTHING. And now, they’re going to have to go up against some big organizations with very deep pockets. Nyah Nyah.