The UK’s Mail On Sunday has given away about three million copies of Prince’s new album, Planet Earth. The promotion has generated heated debate in the UK, because some consider the giveaway an insult to the music industry.
The giveaway is a high-profile example of an established musician experimenting with new ways of getting their music into new hands. With the giveaway, Prince is working around traditional promoters, record stations and retailers, cutting a deal that gets millions of his CDs on the street in one day. That means the CD’s reach will be many times his previous release, 3121, which sold about 80,000 copies in the UK.
“It’s direct marketing and I don’t have to be in the speculation business of the record industry which is going through a lot of tumultuous times right now,” said the Minneapolis musician when asked why he was giving the CD away.
“Prince has done this because he makes most of his money these days as a performing artist,” said the Mail on Sunday’s editor, Peter Wright. “He’s got a fantastic series of concerts coming up at the O2 Dome and this is a way of telling people what he’s doing.”
Music Industry Threatens Retaliation Over Free Music
The deal has sent shockwaves through the record industry.
The Entertainment Retailers Association has gone so far as suggesting that Prince, and others that, like him, experiment with alternate ways of promoting their music, will be banned from the industry.“The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores,” said Entertainment Retailers Association co-chairman Paul Quirk recently. “And I say that to all the other artists who may be tempted to dally with the Mail on Sunday.”
excellent idea, artists make more money doing concerts than selling cds, cd sales money is for the promoter not the artist.
Paul Quirk needs to shut his pie hole. Prince doesn’t need the industry, the industry needs Prince, and their blacklisting him would take money directly from their pockets. Prince has already said that he makes most of his money by touring.
So Paul Quirk is bluffing. And he’s doing a very poor job of it. I hope Prince calls his bluff and sets up his own permanent distribution channel.
Good for him. Although Im not a “big” artists Ive dealt with a few of the little guys(labels) in the industry and they could care less about the artists once the satanic recording contracts are signed. And thats in a genre that maybe .5% of the market.
I can only imagine what the $ hungry tyrants can do on a larger scale.
Hes gone the guts to kindly the the big $ hungry record labels to go screw.
Kudos to Prince for having some backbone….
These are the same people that have been guilty of price fixing CD’s for years. When Best buy started selling CD’s for $11.99 the industry mafia told them they wouldn’t get any printed support materials (art,displays,etc) if they did. i remember when vinyl was replaced by CD’s and they trumpeted the fact of how far the cost of CD’s would drop because of lower production costs.Instead they’re higher. Who’s screwing who here. It’s “acceptable” for them to break the law, but don’t download a song you’re not entitled to. The RIAA people have been acting like the IRS for a long time, with no oversight. Recently a woman sued them right back after they tried to threaten her, but it was the RIAA that paid for her lawyer fees.These people know they aren’t going to have jobs soon, and are lashing out, so it’s time to lash right back at them and show them who is boss. The consumer.