Friday, June 29, 2007

It's not madness. It's marketing.

HEADLINE:

Music industry attacks Sunday
newspaper's free Prince CD
TRANSLATION:

$#!* . . . why didn't we
come up with this first?
Well, it's like this. English music retailers are furious, and Prince's label is running for the hills because the whole bloody lot of them forgot how to commit marketing a couple of decades ago.

Now, a British newspaper -- a biggie in an industry just as desperate as the music industry -- is showing signs of relearning how to market itself, rejigger the broken advertising model and create a win-win situation for itself and Prince. It makes so much sense, it's no wonder the retailers are going nutso and the label is soiling its collective knickers.

Here's the scoop from The Guardian in London:

The eagerly awaited new album by Prince is being launched as a free CD with a national Sunday newspaper in a move that has drawn widespread criticism from music retailers.

The Mail on Sunday revealed yesterday that the 10-track Planet Earth CD will be available with an "imminent" edition, making it the first place in the world to get the album. Planet Earth will go on sale on July 24.

"It's all about giving music for the masses and he believes in spreading the music he produces to as many people as possible," said Mail on Sunday managing director Stephen Miron. "This is the biggest innovation in newspaper promotions in recent times."

The paper, which sells more than 2m copies a week, will be ramping up its print run in anticipation of a huge spike in circulation but would not reveal how much the deal with Prince would cost.

One music store executive described the plan as "madness" while others said it was a huge insult to an industry battling fierce competition from supermarkets and online stores. Prince's label has cut its ties with the album in the UK to try to appease music stores.

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

"The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores. And I say that to all the other artists who may be tempted to dally with the Mail on Sunday."

IF THE RETAILERS and the label had any sense, they would have been giving away Prince's new CD at music stores all across the UK. And the world.

The stores would have been mobbed. All would be raking in the love from Prince fans. And those fans would be buying back catalog -- or other new releases -- with the cash they'd just saved.

But now they're not. They're going to blackmail Prince just like they go all Tony Soprano on their customers. That's called cutting off your nose to spite your face.

And what of The Mail on Sunday, newest distribution channel for major new releases?

The Mail on Sunday is going to sell a bloody boatload of newspapers.

Smashing!

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