Of course Best Buy had its reasons. In the midst of an aggressive expansion, particularly in the New York metropolitan area, the chain used Limp Bizkit's CD to try to solidify its spot in the marketplace as the place for new CDs at cheap prices. Plus, loss leaders are a key way to build foot traffic on the eve of the crucial holiday shopping season. Best Buy's bold pricing move was the first since the major labels, at the pestering of the Federal Trade Commission, agreed to do away with what in effect was a de facto ban on stores selling records below cost. MAP was originally put into effect to stop precisely what Best Buy is doing.
Consumers hope so.
Mom and pop retailers, which can't compete at those prices, hope not. There's still lots of industry chatter about how Napster is affecting record sales. The song-swapping service's partisans point to strong music sales in 2000, arguing that Napster's free access to music does not cannibalize CD sales. So unless this fourth quarter turns out to be a runaway blockbuster, with all genres posting strong sales, come Dec. 31 the music industry could suddenly be facing an essentially flat year. Eric Boehlert is a senior writer at Salon.