Greetings. I know this is the QUEEN SERIOUS DISCUSSION forum, but if you'll allow me a little latitude, this sounds like something that a band of Queen's stature might consider:
LONDON, England (AP) -- Prince has angered the music industry and stirred up trouble among British retailers by giving away his new album with a tabloid newspaper this weekend.
"Planet Earth" will be packaged with the Mail on Sunday at a price of $2.80.
The giveaway has been roundly criticized as a major blow for an industry already facing rapidly declining CD sales. It has led Sony BMG UK, Prince's local label, to pull the plug on its own sales release of the CD in Britain.
Am I reading correctly? The album will NOT be available at retailers in the UK? This does kinda suck for US fans who planned on purchasing the album prior to it's US release.
Also fueling retailers' ire is what they see as a traitorous move by one of their own. After initially harshly criticizing Prince and the deal, music and books retailer HMV, which doesn't normally sell newspapers, decided to sell the Mail on Sunday in its 400-plus stores across the country.
"Like it or not, selling the newspaper is the only way to make the Prince album available to our customers," HMV said.
Rival retailers were outraged.
Oh, so it will be available (so far) at only one retailer. Seems to me like this is giving the average joe the opportunity to make some money on ebay or something. Kinda like the I-Phone.
The use of so-called "covermounts," where free CDs or DVDs are attached to the front of a newspaper to catch the buyer's eye, is widespread in Britain where many newspapers are struggling to retain readers who are turning to online news and entertainment.
Most of the giveaways are compilations of archive recordings or older films. Past giveaways by the Mail on Sunday include CDs by Duran Duran, Peter Gabriel and Dolly Parton. Prince's CD contains new tracks along with old hits such as "Purple Rain."
Dolly Parton ?!?!?
Anyway, not sure of what purpose this is going to serve, but as long as I can still get the album, great! And if it's free with a concert ticket, like the last one, I will most assuredly see him again, take a couple of people, buy T-Shirts and keychains, and still feel like I got the better end of the deal with my free CD.
Prince also plans to give away a copy of "Planet Earth" with each ticket sold for his 21-date London concert later this summer.
Is this the future of album sales? That's what I'm getting at. Is this officially the end of record stores as we know it? Trying to figure out what someone in the UK thinks about this.
Or we could just start calling each other names, that's been a lot of fun lately.
Sorry, please go on with your day if this doesn't interest you...
I think that this might be the begining of something!
Big companies like Sony don´t guive a shit about the artists. They just want marketing and money! That´s why George Michael and Prince decided to end their contracts with them almost ruining their carreers.
Why did Sony pushed the envelop almost ending their careers instead of leting them go (or guive them the freedom they´ve asked)?
I remember, a few years ago, Prince tried to put his new album on sale in USA retailers. He would go to stores personally and tried to put his albums on the shelves. He failed, because it appears that Sony has made threats towards retailers that in case they put Princes album on sale, they would not do business with Sony!
THere have been big albums on independent labells, and for the good of the music industry, Sony and EMI can´t win agains the internet.
I normally don´t wish bad to anyone, but Sony has made some very bad things- acting without compassion with their artists- that i think they will eventually end up falling big time.
On the other hand we have the great label created by Steve Vai, and responsible for Grammy nomenees and winners where the artist receives half of the shares. Now, this is business!
Everybody´s happy and they have freedom to flourish as composers without having to worry about business liars and wrong deals!
Take care
Prince couldn't get a record label in the UK to commit to the release, so he's giving it away, but only in the UK.
Presumably on the same principle that "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World" was released on EMI because Warners passed on it.
And a big boo hoo for those poor US types who were hoping to buy it before the US release. I was hoping for a blowjob off Angelina Jolie but some things we just have to learn to live without. Anyway, the paper will (as you correctly say) be on ebay, so they'll be able to get the CD for less than the US retail price anyway.
..and finally, the record shops should focus their whinge on a) themselves & b) the record companies, as between them they have marginalised all but the most immediately successful, leading to a singles chart full of cover versions and a frighteningly high turnover rate for bands who are dropped with breathtaking speed (does anyone think that sales at the level of Queen I would allow a band to make a second album these days?).