愛惠旗艦店

By PEGGY ANDERSEN, The Associated Press writer

Can one library have too many Whitney Houston CDs?

That's among the quandaries facing local school and library officials as they wade through thousands of CDs that began pouring in this month as part of a 43-state price-fixing settlement with the recording industry.

Some librarians say the selection looks suspiciously like the music companies are dumping stale inventory.

The Tacoma Public Library received about 1,300 CDs from the settlement, much of it Christmas, classical, jazz and popular music. The rest was a mixed bag of Broadway shows and non-Top 40 artists.

Reference librarian Lara Weigand thought the library would be getting "music of enduring interest," so she was disappointed at the shipment. It included 23 copies of Aerosmith's 2001 CD "Just Push Play" and another 23 copies of a Celine Dion record of secondary songs of interest only to true fans.

"I got a Bee Gees record from 2001 ('This Is Where I Came In') that I don't believe yielded any interest" from the public, she said. "I just cannot believe that they thought every library in the state needed a copy of this Bee Gees title at their location."

The Pierce County Library received about 3,000 titles.

"We should be able to use about half of them," said Sharon Ufer, collection services manager.

The Puget Sound Educational Service District, serving 35 school districts, got 1,300 copies of Houston's soaring rendition of the "Star-Spangled Banner," a disc that includes only one other song, "America the Beautiful."

"Really, you can never have too many Whitney Houston CDs," joked district spokeswoman Karen Farley.

Washington was the first state to receive the CDs - more than 115,000 of them for libraries, colleges and schools.

The settlement stems from a lawsuit against several music distributors and recording companies, alleging price fixing. The industry agreed to pay out $67 million to consumers - mailed out as $13.86 checks a few months ago. The CD giveaway to schools, colleges and libraries will cost the industry an estimated $76 million.

The CDs were selected by experts and educators for their lasting significance, and state attorneys general signed off on the list, said Gary Larson, a spokesman for Washington Attorney General Christine Gregoire.

Both Pierce and Tacoma library systems are considering selling many of the CDs. "We first have to know how many we have that we aren't able to use," Ufer said.

Gregoire's office advises recipients to swap their duplicates with other recipients and sell the discs they don't want.

The office also is checking on the complaints to see if the settlement was violated, and has notified the claims administrator in hopes of averting similar problems in other states, Larson said.

News Tribune staff writers Kris Sherman and David Wickert contributed to this report.

TOP OF THE CHARTS?

Of the thousands of CDs received by the Puget Sound Education Service District from a legal settlement, many were duplicates of titles that might not be of interest to your average student. Here are the top 10 in quantity, if not quality.

1. Whitney Houston, "Star Spangled Banner": 1,355 copies
2. Michael Bolton, "Timeless": 619 copies
3. Anthony Lewis/English Chamber Orchestra, "Purcell: Dido & Aeneas": 520 copies
4. Nas, "Nastradamus": 517 copies
5. Entertainment Weekly, "Greatest Hits 1971": 413 copies
6. Lehmann, "Brahms: German Requiem": 393 copies
7. Big Pun/Big Punisher "Yeah Baby": 387 copies
8. Eagle-Eye Cherry, "Desireless": 372 copies
9. Barry White, "Staying Power": 356 copies
10. Entertainment Weekly, "Greatest Hits 1981": 351 copies

SOURCE: Puget Sound Education Service District
(Published 1:06AM, June 25th, 2004)