In an attempt to offset plummeting profits and the mounds of bad press dumped on the music industry after it started suing 12-year-olds and grandparents for file-sharing, the most monolithic record company in the land, Universal, recently announced plans to drastically cut CD prices to woo disenchanted customers back into record stores. The conglomerate (which is home to Eminem and U2 among many others) has started to cut their suggested retail prices from $18.98 to a less outrageous $12.98 — a price that retailers could drop to under $10 with the right sales and discounts. Unfortunately, as predictable as the ponytail slinking down a sleazy record executive’s back, there’s a catch.

In order for a store to receive the marked-down CDs from Universal, it must abide by certain rules and regulations including devoting about a third of its promotional and stock space to Universal products. This stipulation is unrealistic for the largely independent and used record stores in Evanston.

“We’re not likely to stock more Universal releases and put up more of their posters just to get the discount on the CDs because we specialize in independent releases,” said Peter Gere, an employee of 2nd Hand Tunes, 800 Dempster St., which offers mostly used CDs and records along with a couple killer John Coltrane posters.

When the new Eminem CD comes out next year, you may have a tough time finding it for under $10 around here, but instead of complaining about high prices, visit your local independent record store and pick up a release by an independent label that’s not obsessed with “saving the music industry” (read: making millions) but just wants to put out some good albums. Chances are it will be those artistic-minded labels that will still be chugging along for years after file-sharing and price cuts finally kill near-extinct dinosaurs like Universal.