The Coalition Of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) has railed for some time against labels who provide what they call Superior Products like limited edition CD’s with bonus tracks or earlier street dates to their big box competitors like Best Buy. Increasingly they’ve been taking action by boycotting or punishing labels who provide these incentives to other retailers.

Is this practice just smart marketing or an unfair business practice? We admit to being a bit torn on that issue, but are certain that anything that hurts these kind of smart indy retailers is a dumb move for record labels. These are the stores where records start and where street buzz is built.

Here is a “policy” that CIMS published this week to fight back:

We (CIMS member stores) will enforce a label “non grata” period of not less than 2 weeks.

Label Non Grata will be subject to:

1. No out of bin placement for any artist on the label.
2. No sale pricing for any artist on the label.
3. No displays, contests, or other awareness programs for any artist on the
label.
4. No reporting of sales or chart position for artists on the label.
5. We reserve the right to return, without penalty or delay, any product by
the affected artist.
6. Time period will escalate for subsequent incidents.

There has been much dialogue on this subject, yet despite assures to the contrary, the practice continues to be an issue. It is our hope that this policy will be a step in the right direction for a stronger partnership between the retail and label communities.