Sony BMG pull Prince album in covermount row

28 June 2007 - 17:03:03

 

 

Sony BMG has ripped up its UK contract to release Prince's (pictured) new album, Planet Earth, after it emerged that his management company has agreed a deal to give it away as a free covermount with The Mail On Sunday.

 

The newspaper’s Stephen Miron confirmed to Music Week today that the album will be offered to all readers, even before it ships to retailers in the UK. "The first time anyone will be able to hear Planet Earth will be exclusively through The Mail On Sunday," he said. "No artist has ever given away a new album by launching it free with a newspaper and clearly the music retailers will be up in arms."

 

Explaining the decision to renege on the deal, a spokesman for Sony BMG says, "Before the deal [to release his album through Columbia in the UK] was set in place, [Prince and his management] had a number of other deals in place, including the deal to give away the album to people attending his shows at the O2 in London.

 

"At that time the Mail On Sunday deal was not something that we were aware of - that came to light a few days ago. With that in mind it, we decided it was ridiculous to have a UK deal when 2m albums are going out free with papers. We don't want to muck around our retail partners, so out of respect for them we're not going to release the album over here."

 

"It doesn't change the fact that we're delighted to be working with him though," the spokesman adds, "and the global deal remains unaffected; this is a UK-only exemption."

 

News of the initiative caused widespread anger among many music industry executives at today’s London Calling conference in London.

 

Entertainment Retailers Association co-chairman Paul Quirk says, "It would be an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career. It would be yet another example of the damaging covermount culture which is destroying any perception of value around recorded music."

 

Quirk also hinted that record stores may now boycott Prince’s back catalogue, quipping, "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores."

 

Oh FFS :( WHY on earth did they agree to the newspaper deal? :wacko: And with the Mail on Sunday of all papers...<_<

If true - then this is one of the 10 most stupidest things I've ever heard an artist do.

 

It is 10 times worse that it is being done by one of my favourite artists. In protest I was going to have Prince - Guitar as a Personal Chart New entry within the Top 20, but after hearing this appalling news I've banned it from my Personal Chart!

 

I would fully support HMV, Virgin, etc if they removed all his back catalogue from their stores.

If true - then this is one of the 10 most stupidest things I've ever heard an artist do.

 

It is 10 times worse that it is being done by one of my favourite artists. In protest I was going to have Prince - Guitar as a Personal Chart New entry within the Top 20, but after hearing this appalling news I've banned it from my Personal Chart!

 

I would fully support HMV, Virgin, etc if they removed all his back catalogue from their stores.

Agreed - I know Prince is trying to be innovative, with regards to the Verizon deal etc. but what on earth (pun not intended -_-) would he gain from giving his new album away as a covermount, especially seeing Musicology and 3121 were apparantly dry runs for this album which was set to be his best in a long while? :wacko:

 

I sincerely hope this news isn't true :(

Makes sense

 

Brings Prince to a whole new audience

 

Middle aged people, old people and so on who likely will not have bought a Prince album before, they listen to the freebie, like it and go out and buy some old Prince albums, I think it could work quite well

Makes sense

 

Brings Prince to a whole new audience

 

Middle aged people, old people and so on who likely will not have bought a Prince album before, they listen to the freebie, like it and go out and buy some old Prince albums, I think it could work quite well

Then why not have an album sampler rather than a whole album? :unsure:

The reason hes doing this:

 

400,000 people will be getting hes new album for free at the 21 nights in london concerts anyway, so why bother selling it in shops??

 

its easier ust to give it away for free in a paper.

 

anyway, people who are going to see him live (I am 3 times in august/sep) will recieve the PROPER version (digipack, lenticuler cover etc..)

Then why not have an album sampler rather than a whole album? :unsure:

 

Prince is rich enough not to need the money so he can run this album as a "loss leader" so that more sales can be made of his back catologue and future albums

 

The hardcore Prince fans would buy albums but this is about widening the fan base and bringing in a whole new audience

Prince is rich enough not to need the money so he can run this album as a "loss leader" so that more sales can be made of his back catologue and future albums

 

albums sales are in the $h!t as supermarkets sold cheap cds as loss leaders so people would go into stores and buy cheap albums and then while they are in it buy more profitable stuff in there as well, this made loads of people have the mentality of a scrooge when it comes to album product and commoditized then to an extent that they expect them all to be sold for £3*

 

£3 is also the price that a copy of the Manic Street Preachers Lipstick Traces could be bought a few months back in Fopp. Now Lipstick Traces was put out by SonyBMG, its a 2cd so obv 1 cd must be have a value at £1.50 which is only 10p more than the new prince album (which you get a free newspaper with too)

 

 

*(note itunes also there just to sell ipods also a bit of a loss leader too).

 

Prince is rich enough not to need the money so he can run this album as a "loss leader" so that more sales can be made of his back catologue and future albums

 

The hardcore Prince fans would buy albums but this is about widening the fan base and bringing in a whole new audience

 

If so, then why does he always zealously have his videos removed from Youtube?

If so, then why does he always zealously have his videos removed from Youtube?

 

Good point actually TiP... Seems to me he's a bit two-faced tbh... Still, he's always been rather eccentric, and this whole "giving away his music" thing is really nothing out of the ordinary for him....

 

If so, then why does he always zealously have his videos removed from Youtube?

 

I doubt that Prince is personally involved there with the You Tube stuff, that is his record company protecting their IP rights I doubt Prince was even consulted, whereas with the album it seems as if he personally instigated the whole thing

Edited July 5, 200718 yr by Vic Vega

I doubt that Prince is personally involved there with the You Tube stuff, that is his record company protecting their IP rights I doubt Prince was even consulted, whereas with the album it seems as if he personally instigated the whole thing

 

universal currently hold the rights to his back catolog, they removed all the prince videos from youtube

the guardian says:

 

Sign of the times

 

Prince's decision to give away his forthcoming album, Planet Earth, as a Mail on Sunday covermount on July 15 was received with predictable howls of derision by both high-street retailers and the record industry. HMV chief executive, Simon Fox, described the move as "absolute madness", while, perhaps more understandably, the artist's UK label, Sony BMG, quickly dropped him from his one-album deal.

 

For retailers in particular, the move was tantamount to betrayal. "It's not just about the units they would have sold," says Music Week editor Martin Talbot, "because in reality Prince albums haven't sold in huge volumes for some time. I think it's more about the signals of disloyalty that it sends out to the retailers who supported him through his career. It's a slippery slope and it sends out a really damaging message about music."

 

But is it that much of a surprise? And is the loss of an album from an artist way past his creative peak really that damaging? For starters, it's not as if the man who once scrawled "SLAVE" down his right cheek and changed his name to a symbol doesn't have a bit of previous when it comes to record labels. Over the past 10 years Prince has wheeled and dealed his way through any number of one-off contracts, as well as pioneering the unusual business plan of giving his music away for nothing.

 

The impact of this was first witnessed when US ticket holders attending shows on his Musicology tour in 2004 received a free copy of the Musicology album. The result? Nearly $90m (£45m) in gate receipts, and the most profitable tour of the year. The strategy will be repeated for Prince's 21 dates at The O2 this August, where UK fans will be given Planet Earth as part of the £31.21 ticket price.

 

In effect, already living outside of the record industry system, Prince makes the bulk of his revenue from touring. Few radio stations would touch his new music, and so giving it away is the most effective means of marketing and distribution. It might not work for everyone, but, considering the volume of column inches it inspires, it certainly works for him. And the Mail on Sunday deal, while depriving the record shops and Sony BMG of money, will make more for him: Prince is estimated to be being paid between £250,000 and £300,000 by the newspaper, a far greater sum than he would receive as an advance from a record company.

 

The retailers might not like it but, as one poster to the music industry's Record of the Day messageboard quipped, it might be better to go with the flow than look back in anger. How about ordering a job-lot of copies of the Mail on Sunday and stacking them next to some Prince CDs that people might actually pay for?

Whatever, it looks like I'm going to be buying the Daily Mail next Sunday for the first time in my lifetime.