New Prince album to be given away freeMusic 

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Touring Mars

Touring Mars

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People in the UK can get Prince's new album free with a popular tabloid newspaper this weekend - some 2.8 million copies infact. Prince has already given away hundreds of thousands of free copies of his latest album with concert tickets.

Prince stands to make a tidy sum in royalties - more than he would normally get from CD sales - all paid for by the marketing budget of the newspaper in question. And fans stand to benefit by getting his album for free (well, for the cost of a Sunday paper...)

Record stores are furious and claiming that they too have supported Prince in his career by selling his albums (did they really have any choice??) But one high street store, HMV, will actually be selling the newspaper themselves - presumably in an attempt to attract people into their stores!

Is this the beginning of the end for high street music stores? Last month, we already saw the demise of Fopp, a budget CD/DVD store which only recently expanded as far as London, after having been immensely popular in it's native city of Glasgow. Charging as little as £3 for CD's, even Fopp couldn't compete against the double-whammy of internet download stores (such as iTunes) and the rise of this new type of marketing ploy - the 'covermount' (free giveaway to promote newspaper/magazine sales)...

Article
 
Unfortunately you have to buy a copy of the Sunday Mail first :yuck:

I can't believe that FOPP are closing down. Ironically, them closing means i will have to start buying my CD/DVDs online now. :rolleyes:
 
Yes, I was very surprised and disappointed to see Fopp go. They're practically the only place I've been buying stuff like CD's and DVD's in the high street since I came to London. They also had a handy store in the centre of Edinburgh which I would duck into after getting off the airport bus whenever I went home for the weekend... Saying that, the vast majority of CD and DVD expenditure for me has gone to online stores (mostly Amazon) - it's a shame, since Amazon are as competitive on price on older CD's as Fopp, but you need to spend £25 to get free delivery. There's nothing better than just popping into Fopp with a fiver and coming out with a classic album.

Still, as for the Prince album, I'm probably not going to even bother with it. :crazy:
 
I'ts a bit silly that it's free but why am I complaining! :)
 
Meh, I was about to buy the paper in question but I decided that even that would involve too much of a cash outlay for a Prince CD. Next time Prince releases an album, I will be expecting a coupon to enable me to reclaim the cost of the newspaper too.
 
I'm listening to it now out of a strange curiosity. My dad is quite a Prince fan so he sent my little sis' out in the rain to get it :sly:
 
TheCracker
I can't believe that FOPP are closing down. Ironically, them closing means i will have to start buying my CD/DVDs online now. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Great news :D:tup:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6923511.stm

I'm delighted, because all three of the Fopp stores I use are among the 6 (out of 81) which will re-open - London Covent Garden, Glasgow (Byres Road) and Edinburgh (Cockburn Street)... looks like the sneaky CD/DVD on the way home is no longer a thing of the past!
 
I bought the MOS and got it aswell, not really a Prince fan but just wanted to be part of history, a symbol which may start to change the music industry forever... heres to hoping that all albums will be released this way in the future, its not like he didnt get paid for it, it was like £200,000 which is not bad with a guy who probably has enough of the green stuff by now!

I thought it was alright, as with most albums some of the songs are clearly fillers, I was actually expecting more Rock and less quiet RnB but its easy listening... I love the main Guitar track.

As for the newspaper, I dont know why I like the mail on sunday, its like light reading, I already watch the bbc news and read on the web so I just want like gossip and odd stories and the MOS seems to deliver... no offense to MOS readers though ;). I hardly ever buy it...

Robin
 
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