Prince Pisses Off The Entire Music Industry
Everyone knows that nowadays it can be quite hard to find something that you really want for a cheap affordable price.
There’s no shortage of dodgy dealers on eBay selling off brand new goods for 50% off the recommended price. We aren’t that stupid, though, we’d rather much ride our luck by visiting random websites and amazingly being the 1,000,000th visitor. It happens quite a lot to us, we must be lucky or summin. While the only free things we receive are wooden forks from the chip shop and pencils from IKEA, hecklerspray does also give. Though unfortunately, it’s usually in the form of genital-eating STDs. Now, Prince doesn’t give his fans STDs, but he has gone one better and decided to give his new album away for free in a future edition of the Mail On Sunday – something which is being frowned upon by the big wigs of the music industry.
We actually thought that Prince had buggered off to some island in the sun or in, his deluded head, a castle in the clouds where he could play all day with unicorns, elves, fairies and warlocks. Maybe he has, we don’t know, but we have been informed that Prince has come back with a new album entitled Planet Earth. Prince, remember, is the bloke who never seemed to realise that his record company would have the majority of the say in how his music would be distributed and marketed. So of course, our nutjob American friend decided to write 'Slave' on to his cheek with a pen, probably because he was scared of getting a tattoo done.
In May, Prince announced a tour that seems to have got the population of the UK all hot and flustered. Sorry, the population of London. Obviously other cities in the UK like Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Manchester, Newcastle and Birmingham aren’t good enough for the gawky little man and everyone is expected to come to him, even though the music on his new album will probably be the same mediocre toss that can't hold a candle any of his earlier work. After announcing a few shows that sold out in minutes, it was decided that he would be playing an astonishing 21 nights in the capital. Priced at the responsible amount of £31.21, it’s obvious to see why people have snapped up the tickets – to make huge profits on eBay! Or because they can’t afford the £500 price tag that Barbara Streisand is charging for her gigs.
To make the deal even sweeter, a free copy of Prince's new album is also included with the ticket. That’s to say if the gig-goers haven’t already downloaded it off the internet or taped it off the radio. If that were to happen, maybe Prince would go all Jack White on the station responsible. So people going to see Prince this summer are already going to be getting the album as a technical freebie anyway. It does strike us as a bit odd to do this, as people usually go and see a gig after buying the album so they can see it being performed live. Straight away a few pennies will be lost from that lack of revenue.
And, in an even more crazy bit of either press or lunacy that probably arrived when Prince was talking to the fantasy creatures in his head, it has been decided that he will give away the record to crusty readers of the Mail On Sunday. This has pissed off a few people to say the least, especially the album's distributor Sony BMG, which has now refused to distribute it in the UK. Not that this will stop people from either buying it off the internet or stealing it off various naughty websites.
Free CDs and DVDs are ace in our opinion, but when they're given away with crap Sunday newspapers, they're usually from bands we don’t like or films that were forgotten a week after they were released. In 1974. So to get something that is half-decent as a giveaway is a surprising move to say the least. Mail On Sunday managing editor Stephen Miron said:
"It's all about giving music for the masses and [Prince] believes in spreading the music he produces to as many people as possible."
Does the music industry see it that way? Of course not. Paul Quirk of the Entertainment Retailers Association in Britain said:
"It is an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career."
We seriously doubt that Prince has wandered into every branch of HMV and personally thanked each member of staff for selling his records. With the technical digital age that we still don't quite understand, the need for record shops is slowly dying. This is quite evident with music chains like Music Zone and Fopp all shutting down. Does Prince give a toss? Probably not, he’ll be away playing with the enchanted beavers in the magic river in his head while knocking back cupfuls of a specially-brewed fairy tea.
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The useless middlemen in the music industry are losing their grip, and they don’t like it one bit. Whoot.
I buy the Top 75 albums about 3 times a year. I usually pay about £5 which may sound expensive but they would cost about £1,000 if purchased on the High Street. Of course well over 95% are poo and so get the briefest of listens before being given to tone deaf friends and family. However I sometimes have pangs of guilt and start to send fivers anonymously to Elton and Rod fearing they are living in penury.
However as much as I like a bargain the cost of the Mail on Sunday seems well in excess of any amount I would pay to listen to Prince.
You are quite a wanker of a journalist. You start with an outdated 20 year old picture, then you show your lack of research with outdated information and drug induced fantasy. Why don’t you look into the reasons why he is doing this instead of just being a blind supporter of the record industry. They have made copious amounts of money from the masses by selling over priced cd’s for decades. Now our youth are being flooded by talentless, disposable so-called artist so that they can make even more money off of our backs. If he wants to give his music away, then so be it. When was the last time the rich stingy bastards that you support gave anything away. Prince is a true artist. You should remember this when you are in line to buy the new spice girls cd.
It’s also quite possibly true that Prince will be making more money form giving it away than from trying to sell it. Some rough numbers here:
http://timworstall.typepad.com/timworstall/2007/06/planet-earth-pr.html
O dear people are starting to loose their tempers. Calm down dears. Prince wouldn’t like to think he’s causing upset on the World Wide Web that’s the last thing he would want. (Unless people start calling him big ears and say his jam is overpriced and singing “I Talk to the Trees” every time he walks past)