Prince’s New Album Planet Earth Given Away Free in Mail On Sunday

You’ve probably all heard about this by now, as Prince’s decision to release his album in full for free in a Sunday newspaper in the UK has been debated and argued over worldwide. Even though I’m not the biggest fan of Prince, I duly went out and bought a copy of The Mail On Sunday today for a number of reasons. One, I wanted to be a part of this world first, never has an artist agreed to give away a brand new album in full as a freebie. I also wanted to see what all the fuss was about and whether Prince is any more my cup of tea now than he used to be. And lastly, because I wanted a copy of the CD to offer as a prize in a competition I will be starting tomorrow!

For those who aren’t aware of what’s taken place, let’s remind ourselves of the story. Prince decided to give away his new album in the Mail On Sunday newspaper, a move which lead to the album not now being given a proper release. The Mail paid $500,000 to the star for the privilege and 3,000,000 copies of the newspaper went on sale today, each with a full 10 track, never before heard album of new material inside.

The fall out has been amazing, with Prince’s record label Sony BMG U.K. deciding not to release the CD because of the deal. Everyone seemed to have their say on the issue, with people split over the logic and suitability of the decision to give an album away for free. It seems the retailers weren’t happy with the deal…

“It devalues the music and the losers will be new artists who are trying to come through . . . Consumers only have so much listening time in the week and if they receive the new album from Prince then they don’t need to buy new music and will spend their money on something else.” said Kim Bayley, director general, Entertainment Retailers Association

“The Artist formerly known as Prince should know that with behavior like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores,” said Paul Quirk, co-chairman of the Entertainment Retailers Association, referring to a period in the 1990s when the singer famously stopped using his name to protest a binding record deal.

I can see why they wouldn’t exactly be enamoured with the decision, as this will affect CD sales for at least this week. With album sales already falling due to online sales, if this first becomes a trend then it could hit record stores such as HMV very hard.

But there is logic to Prince’s decision, as his last album only sold 80,000 copies in the UK. He’s now got his material distributed to 3 million people in one day, who may then become fans, buy older or future albums and possibly want to go and see him live.

I’ll be reviewing the album tomorrow after giving it a thorough listen a few times through and let you know if the real reason it’s free is because it stinks. I’ll also announce the first contest here on Brit Music Scene, in which you can win a copy of Prince’s new album Planet Earth before it is released worldwide on July 24th. Keep your browsers pointed here, and meanwhile, let me know what you think of the whole shebang in the comments box.