This couild lead to a change in the selling of CDs.

Around three million copies of Prince's new album, Planet Earth, have been given away with the Mail On Sunday.

The promotion is believed to be worth about £250,000 to the musician, whose hits include Purple Rain, Raspberry Beret and Money Don't Matter 2Night.

But the giveaway has angered retailers, who called it "an insult" to high street record stores.

It also dealt a blow to Prince's record label, Sony BMG, which has shelved plans to release the album in the UK.

Read more here.

Prince is a clever guy, he knows people don't want to pay $19.99 for a piece of plastic and some cute liner notes. DVDs have more retail value than CDs, and they sell for about $12 at times, less than most CDs.

Prince was one of the first people to offer music directly through his website, and this was 10 years ago. So even 10 years ago Prince was dabbling in personal retail directly from artist to consumer, long before anyone else jumped on the bandwagon.

Who knows maybe Prince will come up with a way people will be excited to buy music once again and the labels will copy it.

Why is the Mail better than Prince's new CD?
You can wrap fish in the Mail.
:-\\

Why is the Mail better than Prince's new CD?
You can wrap fish in the Mail.
:-\\
Not any more fish is wrapped in plain paper, health and safety etc.

The day after...

Copies of Prince's latest album have flooded the internet after being given away with a newspaper in the UK.

Planet Earth is easily accessible to fans around the world - despite plans for a full commercial release in countries including the US.

The album is freely available to download after an estimated three million copies of the CD were distributed with the Mail on Sunday.

Hundreds of the CDs have also been put up for sale on auction site eBay.

Read more here.

More power to him! 8)

Prince was the first (as mentioned before) to offer his music direct from his website almost ten years ago. He set the stage before on how music is going to be distributed to the public and he's doing it again.

Prince is one of the first artists that stood up to the thieving record industry and its slave like contracts it shackles artists into.
That word "slave" he had on his face in the early 90's was there for a reason.

I really don't care about the RIAA and its claims that downloading and piracy is destroying their market and hurting the artists, fact is it is their own predatory practices that enslaved, cheated or just plain stole money & profits from both the artists and the record buying customer that put them in the situation to begin with. Given the opportunity, the public, tired of their overpriced, overproduced, overhyped and just plain poor selection of music/product, found a way to get what they wanted by bypassing the retail outlet store.

Y'know its true that in business the consumer will dictate the market, and the Purple man is just helping give his audience another choice.

Prince fought long and hard to get where he is today, he has stated before that it wasn't until AFTER Purple Rain that he actually began to see some profits from his efforts (keeping in mind he'd been in the industry for over 8 years and four albums prior) and then he was still contracted to WEA for another twelve years with them taking the lions share of the fruits of his labor.

Well if anything, his dealings with unscrupulous record companies and their shady practices have made him into a very shrewd business man, and very wealthy. Its more than obvious that he has little regard for the industry and how it treats artists or consumers, he's gonna stick it to 'em when he has the chance.
He now has the power to do what he wants with his music and he will. Doesn't matter if the album gets realeased or not in the UK, you'd better believe he's gonna make his $$ on the album. ;)

Let me tell you, I've been on both sides of the fence dealing with WEA, Sony/BMG, industry distributors, record company marketing/production and the like, and I say SCREW Sony/BMG. They have this coming and if its going to be Prince leading the way for a change, than so be it.

I'm afraid I left it on the train.  :-[

At least my newspaper is giving away tickets to the premiere of the Simpsons movie.




Cat

Prince was one of the first people to offer music directly through his website, and this was 10 years ago. So even 10 years ago Prince was dabbling in personal retail directly from artist to consumer, long before anyone else jumped on the bandwagon.


Of course, 10 years ago TAFKAP was in a huge legal dispute with his recodring company about "artistic freedom".

Of course, 10 years ago Metallica was a huge supporter of online distribution.  That was before their record company showed them the huge number of their songs which were already being distributed that way, and how much their royalties were shrinking.  Then they went the exact opposite, and sued everybody in sight.

And give-away records are nothing new.  Cereal companies have been doing that for decades. 

In pop music, there's only one "Planet Earth" I like:

http://991.com/newgallery/Duran-Duran-Planet-Earth-5776.jpg

Prince should render unto Duran Duran what is Duran Duran's.  If DD puts out an album called "When Doves Cry," then maybe....
::)

That actually makes sense that he would do that, since he did something kinda similar with the Musicology CD in 2004. He gave it away at his concerts by adding it to the price of the tickets.

I think the artists are more in touch with what the public wants than some of the CEOs and record execs are. Not that giving albums away for free should always be the way to go. But, let's say someone who wasn't a fan of his got the CD, listened and kinda liked it, then decided Hey, I wonder what else he's done. That could potentially draw in new fans to his existing catalogue too.