Prince’s free album giveaway angers industry

Posted on July 16, 2007 
Filed Under News

PrincePrince launched his new Planet Earth album as a free giveaway with a national Sunday newspaper in the UK and has drawn widespread condemnation from music retailers.

The 10-track CD was available free yesterday’s newspaper which usually sells 2,300,000 copies in the UK (an edition containing a giveaway of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells album earlier this year sold 2.6m copies, while the edition that carried news of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales sold 2.8m copies).

“It’s all about giving music for the masses and he believes in spreading the music he produces to as many people as possible,” said Mail on Sunday managing director Stephen Miron. “The Mail on Sunday is the biggest distributor of albums in this country, we are saying to retailers we would be happy to engage in dialogue.”

One music store executive described the plan as “madness” while others said it was a huge insult to an industry battling fierce competition from supermarkets and online stores.

“It would be an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career,” The Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) co-chairman Paul Quirk told a music conference. “It would be yet another example of the damaging covermount culture which is destroying any perception of value around recorded music.”

Prince, whose Purple Rain sold more than 11m copies, also plans to give away a free copy of his latest album with each ticket sold for his upcoming string of concerts in London.

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