September 3, 2003

Universal Music Canada is cutting the wholesale and suggested list prices on CD to a $14.98 Cdn maximum suggested list price on virtually all of its top line CDs and a $9.99 price tag for developing new artists. It will also start offering music downloads in Canada in October from 99 cents a song and $9.99 per album. Universal Music Canada’s list includes Canadian artists Shania Twain and the Tragically Hip. (via a Slashdot comment) Prices in the American branch, Universal Music Group will drop to a $12.98 US manufacturer suggested retail price on most CDs. It’s wholesale price for retailers would be $9.09 for most CDs with a few perfomers such as Eminem and Shania Twain $1 more. In turn Universal hopes that retailers sell the discs for $10 – less than the MSRP. 11:25:08 PM

Time for the Microsoft patch of the week, this time its flaws in MS Office. 11:21:34 PM

The National Post’s Rebecca Eckler reports that she and her geekiest friend Mark Gollom walked out halfway through this weekend’s presentation of the Hugo awards. Her loss. 11:21:22 PM

This doesn’t sound too good In Amazon.com, Publishers Weekly reviews David and Leigh Eddings’ new fantasy novel, The Elder Gods. Only die-hard fans of the bestselling Eddings duo (The Belgariad series) will enjoy this slow-moving, low-tension epic fantasy, the first in a projected four-book series. [..] Despite a variety of characters (pirates, gods, aboriginals, soldiers, etc.), all speak in the same unlikely, bland manner, and dialogue generally replaces action. The authors will have to pick up the pace in the next volume to keep readers interested. 11:21:00 PM