Prince is awesome!

[britneyspearsisgod]

Anger at Prince free CD giveaway

The music industry has reacted angrily at a decision to give away the new album by US musician Prince with a tabloid newspaper.

Planet Earth will be given free with a future edition of the Mail on Sunday.

The 10-track CD from Prince - whose hits include Purple Rain, Sign O' The Times and Cream - is not due to be released until 24 July.

Paul Quirk, co-chairman of the Entertainment Retailers Association, said the decision "beggars belief".

"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 Mr Quirk, referring to a period in the 1990s when Prince famously stopped using his name in favour of a symbol.

"It is an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career.

"It is yet another example of the damaging covermount culture which is destroying any perception of value around recorded music."

The practice of "covermounts" - where newspapers attempt to lure readers with DVDs and CDs - is used widely in the industry.

The Mail on Sunday's recent CD giveaways include Peter Gabriel, Dolly Parton, Duran Duran, UB40 and Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.

Stephen Miron, the newspaper's managing director, said: "No one has done this before. We have always given away CDs and DVDs, but this is just setting a new level."

Mr Miron declined how much the newspaper had paid to secure the deal.

He added that the newspaper was not out to put music retailers out of business.

"They are living in the old days and haven't developed their businesses sufficiently. We can enhance their business. They are being incredibly insular and need to move their business on," he said.

But HMV chief executive Simon Fox has said it would be "absolutely nuts" to give the album away for free.

The company revealed on Thursday that its profits had more than halved in the face of cut-price competition from supermarkets and online retailers.

The deal has also led to the UK arm of Sony BMG pulling out of the distribution agreement.

"Given the sheer number of copies we are talking about here it seemed the right thing to do for retailers to become exempt from the deal in the UK," said a spokesman for Sony BMG, the world's second-biggest music company.

Prince is due to play 21 concert dates in London later this year.

[METALMAN]

I love Prince. 1999 and Raspberry Beret are amazing songs.

This will be my first ever purchase of the Mail on Sunday I believe.

[ROC]

I love that the line "The Artist formerly known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores" is written there just because he wants to put his music out there to a wider audience by bundling it with tour prices and etc. And seriously, does Prince at this point really NEED the record industry or does the record industry need him? The only thing about this story is that I'd want them to do that in some form in the US...which knowing the US music industry will never happen.

[DMN in the House]

Wait, you needed this to happen to know that Prince is awesome.

Prince is the entertainer that Michael Jackson was hyped up to be.

[Iain76er]

Such a tough decision. Pay an overinflated price for a piece of shit, or go to HMV and pay a overinflated price for Prince's new album.