Get the New Prince Album Free
In a move likely to cause ructions within the music industry, the eagerly awaited new album by Prince will not be sold but given away !
The 10 track CD of all new material will be given away free in a tabloid newspaper in America.
Here in the UK the Mail on Sunday have signed a deal to “give it away”
Whilst free CDs and DVDs, known as covermounts, on the covers of magazines and newspapers are now fairly commonplace it is usually “well worn” stuff that everybody has had their money out of.
Now for the first time we have a brand new release from a top artist that would sell well via music shops etc being given away in the first instance.
People in the industry are up in arms about it.
HMV chief executive Simon Fox has said it would be “absolutely nuts” to give the album away for free.
You can see the music retailers point, these are sales stripped from them.
A much bigger issue for me though would be that:
it reinforces the image the music is now free
It is a theme we have visited before, Illegally Dowloaded Music and touched upon here Unprotected Music Downloads
Clearly there are massive changes within the music industry and no doubt established acts will be able to cope with the changing times.
It does make you wonder how “quality” new artists will be able to break through and make a profitable and sustained career for themselves though.
