I heard about this lawsuit a while ago that was attempting to force music retailers to reimburse consumers for all the price-fixing & general gouging that has made it impossible for myself & many others to buy a new CD. My friend found an article about it:

Louisville Scene

and here's the website where you can actually sign up to be part of the lawsuit and maybe get $5-$20:

CD Settlement

No guarantees that it's all legit, but it seems like it is

i didn't visit these links, but have heard some on the topic. i'm assuming you have to have your receipts from tower and grimeys's for this tho actually work.

I visited the website a few weeks ago, and you don't have to actually show proof of purchase--you just answer a few questions. But it says that if too many people file, no one gets money. It's worth the chance though & hopefully I'll be $5 richer in a few months.

there was actaully an article about it in our beloved tennessean a few months ago, I have a clipping, somewhere.

it sucks that cds are so damn expensive. what sucks worse though is that the artists only get about 7 cents a record. that makes a good deal if money if you're a goddamn pop star and you sell 3 billion records. but what about the little people? the music industry is full of bastards, man. just full of 'em.

I'm amazed that DVD's are cheaper than CD's. The music industry is all messed up.

Extremely old topic, however being an employee of a public library, I thought this link was interesting, and hopefully you will too.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5226945/

The deadline for filing a claim, according to the website, was March 30, 2003. I actually filed just for the heck of it about a year ago or so and I got a check for about 13 bucks. I was pretty shocked. I don't know if you can actually still file a claim, but it's worth trying.

"earlier this year led to approximately 3.5 million consumers who signed up as complainants in the lawsuit receiving checks for $13.86 apiece."

I, too, got my check. That felt good. That story is funny- all these librarians apologizing for not appreciating tons of crappy CDs. Favorite quote:

“We’ve been wondering if we’re going to get 12,000 Yanni CDs,” said Wallace Hoffsis, director of collections development for the Sacramento (Calif.) Public Library.

148 copies of “Entertainment Weekly’s Greatest Hits of 1971.”
I don't know what they're complaining about. You could build a nice little fort out of those...