http://www.telegraph.co.u...cel117.xml

Prince nearly pips Princess for Mail

By Dominic White
Last Updated: 1:46am BST 17/07/2007

A Sunday newspaper has enjoyed its biggest circulation since the death of Princess Diana thanks to a £500,000 deal to give away Prince's new album.

The Mail on Sunday's controversial covermount of the pop star's Planet Earth album boosted its sales by almost a third at the weekend.

But would-be sellers opened a secondary market for the album almost immediately, with copies of the CD being offered yesterday on eBay for as much as £12.20.

Some "readers" bought multiple copies of the paper simply to sell on copies of the CDs, the first new studio album to be given away by a newspaper.

Stephen Miron, managing director of the Mail on Sunday, declared the promotion to be a massive success, however.

More than 3m copies were printed and sales were more than 2.8m, close to the 2.84m achieved after Princess Diana's death in 1997.

Mr Miron said: "We have seen a big increase in advertising revenue … and we have attracted some big international artists who have now got in touch with us [about similar deals].''

The music industry has reacted angrily to Prince's decision to give the album away. HMV also expressed concerns but then decided to sell the Mail on Sunday in most of its 237 stores.

A spokesman for the music retailer said: ''We had a very high footfall in our shops on Sunday, whether that's owing to the Mail on Sunday is difficult to say.''

Despite being Prince's best-selling album for decades, Planet Earth is not eligible to enter the official music charts, although the Mail on Sunday plans to challenge this.
[Edited 7/16/07 19:24pm]

tres Cool!

Since there is no chart measurement that means that if they do a similar deal with other artists then it will be measured by how many papers they sold!

Prince once again proved his point that HE could get his music out there to as many people as a label could. I dont think Prince is really worried about a chart, since i think the idea of PLANET EARTH was to cover the Earth with this cd, which is what is going to happen, whether people buy the paper, listen to it once and throw it away, or sell it or whatever they do its not really gonna matter because Prince once again did shit his way, which is DIFFERENT. Im not sure if others will follow his lead on this one, but i think for artists, well established that have something to say, like a Dylan or Springsteen or whomever, they should all do something like this at least once.

Not everyone can do this kinda deal! but the artist has to meet certain requirements
* CD financed on their own
* no big producers work on their cd ( otherwise they will want a cut)
* no songwriters!
*they make shit load of money from touring
* have to be big enuff! the paper just wont sign small time artist for these deals!

This shrinks the number of artist who can give out their albums! but some who r independently wealthy could still have a producer work on it and pay for the producers services with their own money!
I think the paper was attracted to prince deal not because of his past cd sales but princes ability to draw such a big audience to his concerts if u include all the concerts and aftershows he will sell nearly 1/2million tix in the city of london! Thats totally massive and prince gained the extra publicity for the shows!
and he gets his music out
[Edited 7/16/07 20:10pm]

So.. he "sold" 2.8 million copys of Planet Earth in one day... DAMN!!

P2daP said:

not 2 shabby, eh

I heard he got a mil for this deal, which is WAY more than what he would have acheived if cd's sold in stores...at least on that island...




clever little midget....




...sorry little people...
[Edited 7/17/07 0:36am]

BobGeorge909 said:

he sold 2.8 million and got 500.000 pounds for it. how many albums would he have had to sell to make 500.000 pounds? i think prince has benefited well financially with this mail on sunday deal

Crystal777Ball said:

Well, if it was 5% as this graph would have us believe...




...an album in the UK retails for about £10.00 - five percent of which would be 50 pence. He would have had to sell a million copies to have gotten £500,000.

.
[Edited 7/17/07 3:59am]

So in musical reality, Prince actually constructed a great deal to get paid and get his album out to the masses.

He now has 2.8 million copies of his album out there. We fans know in reality 2.8 million copies if "Planet Earth" were not going to sell in the UK or the U.S. so this deal was solid and innovative. It ensured his album to sell and ensured him a gauranteed profit!

To all young artist... These are the benefits of being a powerful music artist who doesnt have to take a crap from any record label!

I'm pleased to read this, when I went into my local HMV on Sunday afternoon, there were hundreds of unsold copies of the paper lying around so I feared that it might have been a dissapointment.

Obviously not.

From the very beginning of his career, Prince has gone his own way and found ways to do things that others at first derided.

The music business of 2007 is completely different from the music business of 1977. Nowadays, artists have to think of innovative ways to get their music out there and get paid.

The shackles of the major record labels are falling off emaciated wrists and withered ankles. Artists can promote themselves in ways never even dreamed of as little as ten years ago.

Youtube, the ipod, the internet, all are changing the face of music.

Kudos to Prince for always thinking outside of the box.

Alasseon said:

He is pretty skinny.

ALL this is great promotion!

No one is buying albums anymore and really there is NO radio play for anyone, only maybe 5 people of the moment.

Prince has figured out some nice ideas to get promotions:

Cel Phone
Cel Phone Company promotes it with TONS of Commericals
UK Newspaper
Every Newspaper talking about it

NOW he can do TV live music performances.

jlpugh said:

These are the benefits of being a big superstar from a major label. Period

Now that's easy to say fuck the record labels now when you have a strong hardcore fanbase and an established name. Something that would have never happen without this record label.


And I didn't remember Prince fans complaining when his record company was spending millions of dollars to promote his first albums despite poor sales. Nope, Prince fans didn't complain at all during that time.

lastdecember said:

True!

Justin1972UK said:

thats what i thought at first but the normal royalty rate for artists is really 12% per album i heard, some artists get more.

krayzie said:

you don't remember it cause there wasn't a forum to "hear" the complaining like there is now. I'm SURE there was complaining...I mean come on...it's Prince fans we're talking about here....right?

lastdecember said:

jlpugh said:

Well said.....

god i only wish it was a better album, i didnt feel it. glad he got his paper up front but i'd like to know how many of those 2.8 million will listen to it and go damn i should have just got a paper.

P2daP said:

Put like that, wow, it's something else eh?!

under warner bros prince got around 25% per cd, which was amongst the highest out there, in fact, i think only michael jackson got more due to the fact he got an upfront payment of like £20million per album plus his 25%

Jamzone333 said:

Its also true that by getting this CD to 2.8 million people, PRINCE just did what it takes 50-100 marketing execs to do for new artists, and lets not forget the cost of those marketing execs, that is what has brought the industry to its knees, and here Prince gets his music into more homes in one shot in one day than any other artist has sold this whole year. Just think about that for a moment, 2.8 million people in one part of the world got your cd, whether they listen once or 100 times really doesnt matter, the point is they got it.

therapyisback said:

I don't see why anyone would throw it away. It's short and sweet. Plus, we'll chart it over here. Patiently awaiting the 24th.

yomaris said:

I don't see why anyone would throw it away either. Even if I didn't like it, I've not thrown away any freebie from a paper. Admittedly, all I've got have been some dodgy films and some good ones, but I've even kept the ones I don't particularly like.

my concern would be that its not a particular good album to introduce people to prince with but hey thats his perogative

i definately look forward to the gigs more than the albums