] City Music, also in Indianapolis, was raided the
] following week. "They came in and took anything that was
] on a recordable CD," manager Jerome Avery says. "The only
] DJ mixes I had were behind the counter for personal
] listening, and they confiscated them. How can it be
] illegal if the artist is making them for the street? They
] came without a notice - no warrant, no nothing.
] They're making up their own laws, if you ask me."
]
] The City Music raid happened on October 1, the day the
] enormous Universal Music Group's new prices went into
] effect - more bad news for small, independent record
] stores. Universal's widely publicized $9.09 wholesale
] prices only apply to the largest retail chains, and only
] to stores that are willing to buy 30 copies of a disc at
] one time. Most smaller stores, though, deal with
] "one-stop" sub-distributors that can fill orders for a
] disc or two quickly, and take a markup of their own. And
] many retailers are frustrated that customers have been
] coming in for weeks, asking where their $9 CDs are.
]
] Eric Haight of Record World in Petoskey, Michigan, notes
] that a new Sting album before the price drop cost the
] store $12.69, with a suggested retail price of $18.98.
] Now it costs them $10.79, with a retail price of
] $12.98 - the profit margin has been slashed by almost
] two-thirds, and Universal will no longer help them out
] with advertising costs. "I think their motives are
] suspect," Haight says. "This won't affect the Best Buys
] of the world, but I can't see our store making it through
] 2004."

RIAA raiding small music stores for selling DJ mix CDs