Fresh off getting the customary fines out of the recording industry for
still doing payola, it looks like New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is turning his attention to whether or not the record labels are
involved in illegal price fixing for downloadable music -- and has subpoenaed Warner Music. Is this really that surprising? As we've been noting for months and months, Warner's head, Edgar Bronfman Jr. has
openly been advocating illegal price fixing for Apple's iTunes by trying to force Apple to raise the prices of songs. Warner (and all the other music labels) have the right to charge whatever they want
to the retailer (in this case Apple), but they should have no say in what Apple charges the consumer. Any attempt to set the final prices can be seen as price fixing, and yet it's exactly what Bronfman has been publicly stating for many months.