The eagerly awaited new album by Prince is being launched as a free CD with a national Sunday newspaper in a move that has drawn widespread criticism from music retailers. "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. "This is the biggest innovation in newspaper promotions in recent times."
Prince is not stupid. Quite the contrary, actually. He knows where he makes his real money. For artists of his caliber, that's live performance and broadcast royalties. 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. Prince's label has cut its ties with the album in the UK to try to appease music stores. The Entertainment Retailers Association said the giveaway "beggars belief". "It would be an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career," 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. "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores. And I say that to all the other artists who may be tempted to dally with the Mail on Sunday." High street music giant HMV was similarly scathing about the plans. Speaking before rumours of a giveaway were confirmed, HMV chief executive Simon Fox said: "I think it would be absolutely nuts. I can't believe the music industry would do it to itself. I simply can't believe it would happen; it would be absolute madness."
The record industry is scared shitless. They are at the point where they have to try new things. Teaming up with newspapers is an interesting idea. When it comes to entertainment, the Sunday papers and the weekly papers are the ones that must out innovate each other. All the players here are correct that the perception of the economic value of music is broken. Rather, it's just downright lost now. People place emotional value on music, and always will. As it stands right now, the only place people still place economic value is in the direct connection you get with the artist when seeing them perform live. People used to have strong bonds with record labels, buying new releases off certain labels, just based on track record. Now, both average and non-average music consumers hold nothing but vile for the labels. If the retail stores manage to make the artists hate them, then it's game over for them that much faster. The big retail music store is going to die. I don't see a way for it to continue existing. I think Starbucks is drilling down the right direction. The future environment in which people are going to share music is the coffee house.. Ponder the idea of a Starbucks/iTunes partnership for a moment.. When at a Starbucks, downloads are 20% cheaper. They make up the money in saving bandwidth costs by having cache boxen on site. Starbucks makes money from having more people around, who will obviously buy decaffeinated stuff. The possibility exists that neat environments would spring into existence, where people sit around talking about music and giving each other recommendations. Music industry attacks Sunday newspaper's free Prince CD | Guardian Unlimited | 
