We will not rock you

Virginia and 39 other states sued eight music distributors and retailers accusing them of price-fixing and all I got was a lousy Michael Bolton CD. Well, not me personally, but that is what lots of libraries and public schools in Virginia and across the nation are getting as their share of the $75 million non-cash part of the settlement. Other CDs distributed as part of the deal include teen band Hanson’s “Snowed In” and, get this, Martha Stewart’s “Spooky, Scary, Sounds for Halloween.” Not every CD is a dud but it’s fair to say that the value of the CDs is substantially less than $75 million. If you were a member of the class and signed up you could also get a check for almost $13, $67 million in total.

According to the judge, pure transaction costs were $6-8 million and the lawyers got just over 14 million so depending on how you evaluate the free CDs (I think $35 million is generous) total transaction costs might eat 20-30 percent of the settlement – not bad as far as these things go. Note, however, that the plaintiff’s claim was that consumers were being overcharged by 23 cents a CD. Personally, I’d be happy to pay the extra 23 cents to be free of class-action lawsuits like this. But then again I don’t buy as many CDs as Tyler.