Music industry attacks Sunday newspaper's free Prince CD

[method77]

From the Guardian:

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.

The Mail on Sunday revealed yesterday that the 10-track Planet Earth CD will be available with an "imminent" edition, making it the first place in the world to get the album. Planet Earth will go on sale on July 24.

"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."

more...

[DudeAsInCool]

Another story about this...

[Excrement_Cranium]

WTF?

An artist trying to spread art for the art of it... not the money?

Prince is a lunatic!

[rainbowdemon]

WTF?

An artist trying to spread art for the art of it... not the money?

Prince is a lunatic!

But he didn't do this with "Purple Rain" or "1999" or any of the others that made him millions!!

Still pretty cool though.

[DudeAsInCool]

But he didn't do this with "Purple Rain" or "1999" or any of the others that made him millions!!

Still pretty cool though.

he makes his money off of his concerts and other stuff. the cd is the driver... the web made this possible.

[Lord_of_the_Dense]

I applaud him with one hand.

[DudeAsInCool]

LA Times kills similar suggestion by Arts Editor:

"The bug at the bottom of the Calendar front in today's Los Angeles Times says columnist Patrick Goldstein is on assignment. Not true. His The Big Picture column for Tuesday was killed, apparently by associate editor John Montorio. Goldstein's offense was to propose that the Times follow the lead of the U.K.'s Mail on Sunday (which distributed 2.9 million free Prince CDs) and partner with older artists to give away music in the paper. He argued it could help make the Times website a destination for fans and reduce the need for front page ads (which the editor of the Times himself calls a huge mistake.) Seems reasonable enough for a column, and Goldstein was on the Spring Street Committee that was tasked with coming up with innovative ideas:

It’s time we embraced change instead of always worrying if some brash new idea — like giving away music — would tarnish our sober minded image. Still, the piece was spiked on high after sailing through the desk. The banned column fell into our hands and runs in full after the jump":

Read the banned articles HERE