How a 'free' album makes millions...for prince

http://www.telegraph.co.u...nce119.xml

Prince's idea of giving away his latest release is not as eccentric as it first appears, writes Neil McCormick

Did you know the Prince album given away with last week's Mail on Sunday was his 46th official release? Even given that it includes compilations (five) and live sets (two), that is a lot of albums - almost two a year since 1978. And some of them are doubles.

Prince - gave away his latest album with the Mail on Sunday
Prince: the smartest-working man in Pop?

There surely comes a point when the world doesn't really need another album by any artist, a notion sales figures certainly bear out. Elton John, Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones are quantifiable superstars enjoying some of the best reviews of their long careers and regularly touring to sold-out stadiums, but their latterday albums only graze the upper reaches of the charts, and singles vanish without trace. The artist may feel compelled to keep creating, but for most fans even the greatest musicians are defined by a few classics and a hits compilation.

Nearly 20 million people worldwide bought Purple Rain in 1984, when Prince's intoxicating, eccentric mix of rock and funk sounded like the future of music. By 2001 the fan base willing to shell out for Rainbow Children was a hardcore 300,000. UK sales of last year's heavily promoted 3121 were just 80,000.

Mind you, at least that's 80,000 who actually wanted to listen to it, not just newspaper subscribers who might stick it on in the background while reading about the Beckham's latest adventures in Hollywood. When the market is saturated with something, people tend to say "you can't give it away". But the Mail on Sunday's distribution of three million copies of Prince's Planet Earth suggests otherwise.

Whatever the Mail's traditionally reactionary readership made of this association with a cross-dressing musical satyr who conflates sex and God into a highly personal mythology of erotic spirituality, the music business was certainly not amused. SonyBMG, the label scheduled to release the record, cancelled its commercial release. Record stores threatened to remove Prince's back catalogue: "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 Paul Quirk, co-chairman of the Entertainment Retailers Association.
advertisement

Prince was accused of "devaluing music". Yet he himself simply called it "direct marketing", with a view to promoting his upcoming 21 shows at London's O2 arena. The newspaper paid a rumoured £300,000 for the album, which is more than any advance Prince would receive from a record company given his current sales profile. He has also been giving away CDs to everyone who buys a live ticket. Fifteen shows have sold out. If the remaining six follow suit, the concert series will gross almost £15 million.

And that's before merchandising is factored in. Not a bad haul for someone who is devaluing music.

What Prince is doing is not really so different from U2 linking up with Apple to promote their 2004 hit Vertigo, or Paul McCartney releasing his latest album through Starbucks. The reality for most musicians, veteran or otherwise, is that pop radio won't playlist them, so they have to use a little imagination to get the message out.

Last month, London band the Crimea (recently dropped from WEA despite being hugely creative and critically lauded) opted to make their excellent new album, Secrets of the Witching Hour, available free on the internet (http://snipurl.com/crimea). More than 53,000 fans have downloaded it at the time of writing, with the counter still ticking over. The payback is that their recent tour has been their best attended and most profitable.

And this is what the music business is really worried about: the spectre of free music. CD album sales are declining, down 9 per cent in the UK so far this year and 20 per cent in America, but legal downloads are not taking up the slack. According to a recent US survey, last year fans acquired more than half their music from unpaid sources, whether that be illegal downloads, free downloads from promotional and networking sites, or covermounts stuck to the front of magazines and newspapers.

But everybody knows you can't really get something for nothing. This is an advertising-led model of music distribution, paid for exactly the same way we pay for commercial TV - by exposure to messages from sponsors.

And if Prince can make the Mail on Sunday seem funky, I expect we shall see a lot more of the same. Even after 46 albums of drifting focus and steadily declining sales, it seems the royal badass might still be capable of shaping the future of music after all.

Prince, U2 and McCartney....old fogies trying to squeeze out the last couple of dimes from their former glory.

Sad....as if they millions they get from touring and back catalog is not enough. God forbid they would try to just make some great music and earn their money through sales and not shilling for big media, big tech and coffee.

emesem said:

emesem said:

Prince is a marketing genius.

Once upon a time, in a deep dark forest, an old woman, tappin' her toes...

asg said:

"Everybody says nothing comes too easy, but when you've got it baby, nothing comes to hard". People underestimate just how smart Prince really is, I've never understood that. But he can show them better than he can tell them!

emesem said:

I say good for him!

Now bring back the NPGMC and all will be happy.

Amen.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

emesem said:

Hasn't prince come a long way since his laughing stock 'symbol / slave' days of the mid nineties. Most of my friends bought the MOS and are astonished at prince's musical ability, simply having no idea of his range and musicianship.
As far as I'm concerned his standing has never been higher.

Position in history secure, place sat amongst the gods - not in question.
Well done prince.

emesem said:

Saw Prince closing weekend in Vegas and have seen him many other times...he's never been better - he's deeper, more himself, doesn't have to try as hard. His voice (which has always been incredible) is even more so (not to even mention his guitar playing which will just make you cry). Prince is giving away his music, I think, because it's all about love and God for him anyway...he sees his music as a sort of public service...his calling, something like that. At any rate, when you think of the joy and pleasure Prince, McCartney and U2 have spread over "Planet Earth"....we can only be grateful for any music they give away that might touch an insane mind on our troubled planet...they are all incredibly gifted souls who touch alot of lives...however they do it....is good by me.

im all for a musician giving away his music if he wants. what I dont like is selling your music to be a advertising gimmick.

Why not give the album away at the EARTH concert? How about instead of selling it to a right wing rag do something productive with it? If it was really about getting it in people hands why not attach it to something worthwhile?

PRINCE DID NOT GIVE AWAY HIS ALBUM, he sold it to be a marketing gimmick for a newspaper.

MendesCity said:

jtsmaggie said:

I'm so proud...!

Snap said:

LeGrindLady said:

jtsmaggie said:

Snap said:

Brendan said:

emesem said:

MattUK said:

MattUK said:

live4lust said:

MattUK said:

I'd call myself a fan, but no way can I make this add up. Purely Prince albums must be a long way short of this total surely - where's the list of 61??

Doesn't sound right to me, either. Especially if double or triple albums are counted as one.

Brendan said:

live4lust said:

Doesn't sound right to me, either. Especially if double or triple albums are counted as one.

Yep. They only count as one. You could release a 10-disc box set and it would still only count as 1 release.

Prince has been quite clever with the release of this album I think. It has generated a lot of publicity for him, plus, if the album had been released normally, how many people would have downloaded it anyway, how much money would he have got from the album being released in Britain and Ireland compared to how much money the MOS paid for it?

It will be interesting to see how much the albums sell in other countries compared to his last few albums. Will it chart as high as 3121?