Planet Earth Album Scrapped By Sony UK?

[The One]

http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/Guitar.jpgPrince album drama
(Thursday June 28, 2007 05:56 PM)

The record label behind Prince's new album have scrapped plans to release it in the UK, after he signed an exclusive deal with a national newspaper, it has been claimed.

"Planet Earth" is due out next month, as the diminutive pop legend gets ready for his summer residency at the O2 in London.

However, it has today emerged that Sony BMG will not now back the record here after learning of a "ridiculous" giveaway with The Mail On Sunday.

Prince's management company are understood to have struck a deal with the paper which will see two million copies handed out to readers before release.

Stephen Miron from the paper confirmed the plan today, commenting: "The first time anyone will be able to hear 'Planet Earth' will be exclusively through The Mail On Sunday.

"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", he told Music Week.

Meanwhile a spokesman for Sony BMG responded: "Before the deal was set in place, (Prince) 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 two million 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 and the global deal remains unaffected; this is a UK-only exemption."

"Planet Earth" was due to be released on July 16.

[Savage]

OMG. I didn't expect that. Better buy the mail on Sunday! Which one though?

[The One]

Prince Giveaway an 'Insult' to Record Shops

Katie Allen, media business correspondent
Thursday June 28, 2007
Guardian Unlimited


The Mail on Sunday's plan to give away Prince's new album for free has drawn harsh complaints from CD retailers with one executive describing it as "madness".
Music industry insiders say the newspaper is in talks with the pop star to issue his latest album as a free covermount.


The plan follows the Mail on Sunday's giveaway of Mike Oldfield's album Tubular Bells, which sparked a row with the musician over the effect on sales. Oldfield attacked music company EMI for agreeing to give away Tubular Bells in the paper, but the Mail on Sunday responded by saying it actually lifted the album's sales in the shops.


The Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) made no secret today of its anger over the Prince plans, saying the rumour of a 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."

"If it turns out to be the case - and we're still trying to get to the bottom of it - 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."

He went on to warn the music industry not to take record stores for granted.
"How can you expect record stores to support you if you then do deals which threaten the very basis of UK record retailing."

High street music giant HMV was similarly scathing about the plans.
"I think it would be absolutely nuts if Prince's album was given away by the Mail on Sunday," said HMV chief executive Simon Fox. "I can't believe the music industry would do it to itself. I simply can't believe it would happen, it would be absolute madness."

Prince also plans to give away a free copy of his new album with each ticket sold for his upcoming string of concerts in London. The singer had signed a global deal as well for the promotion and distribution of his new album in partnership with Columbia Records, a division of music company Sony BMG. A spokesman for the group said today that the UK arm of Sony BMG had withdrawn from Prince's global deal fearing damage to its relationship with retailers.

"We think it the right thing to do in the difficult retail market," he said. "We are delighted Prince has come back to a major label but this makes sense for the UK."

The Mail on Sunday could not immediately be reached for comment. The Associated Newspaper title has maintained in the past that its covermount CDs of artists such as Simply Red, Madness and Dolly Parton stimulates interest in music.

[freedom]

U.K. Storm Brewing Over New Prince Album
http://www.billboard.com/billboard/photos/art/p/prince_02l.gif
Lars Brandle, London

Sony BMG U.K. will not handle Prince's upcoming album release after a national British newspaper struck a deal to give the CD away. Columbia in the United States recently struck a worldwide deal, understood to cover just the new album, "Planet Earth." The major's U.K. company had sought, and has now achieved, an exemption from the terms of that deal, a spokesman for Sony BMG tells Billboard.com.

"The Prince album will not be released in the U.K.," the spokesperson says. "It's a one-off situation."

The unusual development is a direct response to a deal the Mail on Sunday is understood to have sealed with Prince's representatives, which will see the 10-track CD distributed as a "covermount" with an unspecified edition of the newspaper.

As previously reported (http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003597448), the album is slated for an international release July 16, and July 24 in the U.S. Columbia had previously released Prince's 2004 disc, "Musicology."

Furthermore, the album will be distributed free to thousands of gig-goers. Prior to confirmation of the Columbia deal, Prince last month announced plans to give-away copies of the album with tickets to his 21-date the Earth Tour residency at London's new O2 Arena, formerly known as the Millennium Dome, beginning Aug. 1.

CM8ShowAd("Middle");[/URL] The Mail on Sunday was at the center of a heated "covermounts" dispute within the U.K. music industry when it pressed up 3 million copies of Mike Oldfield's complete 1973 album "Tubular Bells," to distribute as a freebie with its April 22 edition.

"We're not in a fight with anybody," the publication's managing director, Stephen Miron, tells Billboard.com. "We're just trying to produce the best possible content we can do, and give it to an audience who clearly have an appetite for it. And what we are also able to demonstrate is we can stimulate that appetite, and people then go on to fulfill their appetite with extra product, be it album sales, DVD sales, concert tickets or whatever."

When asked if the newspaper would continue to covermount core catalog releases in the future, Miron said, "Yes. I think we've been able to demonstrate that we've got a commitment to music and a passion for music."

The Prince release, however, is threatening to blow up into another industry dispute.

Paul Quirk, co-chairman of the U.K.'s Entertainment Retailers Association, used his keynote speech yesterday at the London Calling conference to condemn the latest "covermount." Having said the news "beggars belief," he added, "If it turns out to be the case, The Artist formerly known as Prince should know that with behavior like this, he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores."

source: [url]www.billboard.com (http://adopt.euroclick.com/lnk/?k=MTAwNzM7NTg3Mjs1NTIxOzE0NzYwO2YuZi45LmZwLnZtdC5 mQEB5aWx6d3l6bXdAQG9sbXdsbUBAOV85QEB5Z212ZyBmcCBpd nRybG16byBtdmdkbGlwOzExODMxNDU0MTEzNjU7Njs7MzcwfDQ wfDM0fDs7NDsxMjIxMDsxhref=http://ab.vcmedia.com/c/s=87429/c=101841/)

[unique]

Prince album in release controversy

Sony BMG 'drops' the purple one

29.Jun.07 3:47pm
Prince (http://www.nme.com/artists/prince)'s new album has been caught in a web of controversy over it's release.

Sony BMG UK will not handle the album's release after the 'Mail On Sunday' struck a deal to give the whole of the record away as a covermount CD with an unspecified edition of the paper.

Columbia records recently struck a worldwide deal, understood to cover just his new album 'Planet Earth'.

A spokesperson for Sony BMG said: "The Prince (http://www.nme.com/artists/prince) album will not be released in the UK. It's a one-off situation", reports Billboard (http://billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003605696).

The album is slated for an international release on July 16 and July 24 in the US. And on July 24 in the US.

'Planet Earth' will be distributed free to thousands of gig goers.

Prince (http://www.nme.com/artists/prince) said that he was planning to give away the album with tickets to his 21 date Earth tour residency at London's new O2 Arena which begins on August 1.

The Mail On Sunday's publication manager Stephen Miron said: "We're not in a fight with anybody. We're just trying to produce the best possible content we can do, and give it to an audience who clearly have an appetite for it."

However, Paul Quirk co-chairman of the UK's Entertainment Retailers Association used his keynote speech yesterday at the London Calling conference to condemn the latest "covermount", saying: "If it turns out to be the case, The Artist formerly known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this, he will soon be The Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores."


http://www.nme.com/news/prince/29346

[unique]

Prince's free album causes storm with retailers

http://i.usatoday.net/life/_photos/2007/06/29/princex.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:;) http://i.usatoday.net/_common/_images/clear.gif


Readers of this Sunday's Mail will get a copy of Prince's upcoming album with their morning paper.

'By Gavin Haycock, Reuters LONDON — U.S. rock star Prince is to give away his new album for free with a U.K. tabloid newspaper, weeks before its official launch, in a move that has caused dismay among music retailers.


Prince's new 10-track CD Planet Earth will be included with this weekend's Mail on Sunday, the newspaper's managing director, Stephen Miron, told Reuters on Friday.


The album is not scheduled to go on sale until July 24.


"No one has done this before. We have always given away CDs and DVDs, but this is just setting a new level," Miron said.
Paul Quirk, co-chairman of the Entertainment Retailers Association, said Prince's decision "beggars belief".


"The Artist formerly known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores," he said, referring to a period in the 1990s when the funk star, born Prince Rogers Nelson, famously stopped using his name.
"It is an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career. It is yet another example of the damaging covermount culture which is destroying any perception of value around recorded music," Quirk told a music conference in London on Thursday.
The practice of "covermounts", where newspapers strive to lure readers with DVDs and CDs, is used widely in the industry at a time when many newspapers are struggling to keep readers amid the distractions of online news and entertainment.


Miron declined to say how many additional copies were planned by the newspaper, whose circulation is normally around 2.3 million copies, or how much the Mail on Sunday had paid to secure the deal with Prince.
Prince's mew album comes before a run of 21 concerts he will play in London this autumn.


The concerts by the innovative funk artist, who created such groundbreaking works as 1984's Purple Rain and 1987's Sign O' The Times and has sold an estimated 80 million albums, will be the only shows he performs in Europe this year.


Global deal
Prince has signed a global distribution and marketing deal with Columbia, a unit of Sony BMG, but the U.K. arm of the business has pulled out of the distribution agreement.
"Given the sheer number of copies we are talking about here it seemed the right thing to do for retailers to become exempt from the deal in the UK," said a spokesman for Sony BMG, the world's second-biggest music company.


HMV Chief Executive Simon Fox told reporters following the music and books retailer's annual results he thought it would be "absolutely nuts" to give the album away for free before its commercial release. HMV saw its profit more than halve as it battled cut-price supermarket and online sales.


The Mail's Miron said the newspaper, whose recent CD giveaways include Peter Gabriel, Dolly Parton, Duran Duran and UB40, was not out to put retailers out of business.


"They are living in the old days and haven't developed their businesses sufficiently. We can enhance their business. They are being incredibly insular and need to move their business on," he said.

[unique]

Anger at Prince free CD giveaway

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42446000/jpg/_42446150_prince_body203.jpg
Planet Earth is Prince's 24th studio album


The music industry has reacted angrily at a decision to give away the new album by US musician Prince with a tabloid newspaper. Planet Earth will be given free with a future edition of the Mail on Sunday.

The 10-track CD from Prince - whose hits include Purple Rain, Sign O' The Times and Cream - is not due to be released until 24 July.
Paul Quirk, co-chairman of the Entertainment Retailers Association, said the decision "beggars belief".

"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 Mr Quirk, referring to a period in the 1990s when Prince famously stopped using his name in favour of a symbol.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/o.gif http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/start_quote_rb.gif No one has done this before... this is just setting a new level http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/end_quote_rb.gif Stephen Miron, Mail on Sunday MD


"It is an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career.

"It is yet another example of the damaging covermount culture which is destroying any perception of value around recorded music."

The practice of "covermounts" - where newspapers attempt to lure readers with DVDs and CDs - is used widely in the industry.

The Mail on Sunday's recent CD giveaways include Peter Gabriel, Dolly Parton, Duran Duran, UB40 and Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.

Stephen Miron, the newspaper's managing director, said: "No one has done this before. We have always given away CDs and DVDs, but this is just setting a new level."


Out of business

Mr Miron declined how much the newspaper had paid to secure the deal.
He added that the newspaper was not out to put music retailers out of business.

"They are living in the old days and haven't developed their businesses sufficiently. We can enhance their business. They are being incredibly insular and need to move their business on," he said.

But HMV chief executive Simon Fox has said it would be "absolutely nuts" to give the album away for free.

The company revealed on Thursday that its profits had more than halved in the face of cut-price competition from supermarkets and online retailers.

The deal has also led to the UK arm of Sony BMG pulling out of the distribution agreement.

"Given the sheer number of copies we are talking about here it seemed the right thing to do for retailers to become exempt from the deal in the UK," said a spokesman for Sony BMG, the world's second-biggest music company.

Prince is due to play 21 concert dates in London later this year.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6256732.stm

[The One]

Paper pays £500k to give Prince's new album away


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/graphics/2007/06/30/cnprince130.jpgThe Mail has paid a reported £500,000 to distribute Prince’s Planet Earth CD


A Sunday newspaper is understood to have paid the Princely sum of $1m (£500,000) to give away the pint-sized popstar's new album, in an unprecedented move that has infuriated music retailers.
HMV chief executive Simon Fox has said it would be "absolutely nuts" for the music industry to give away new CDs through papers amid fears that other artists will follow suit.
The Mail on Sunday is hoping that its costs will be justified by increased sales when it releases the Planet Earth album before any other distributor in the world.
Newspapers have used CD and DVD cover mounts for several years but never before has an artist released a new album as a giveaway.
The music industry, which is battling fierce competition from online piracy, fears the move will further devalue its product.
Martin Talbot, editor of Music Week, said: "The danger is that it becomes a trend for artists who can get a large sum upfront with no marketing costs."
The UK arm of Sony BMG's Columbia records has withdrawn from its global deal to distribute the 10-track Planet Earth album.
Peter Wright, editor of The Mail on Sunday, said: "Prince is running a campaign to give music back to the fans and we are delighted to be involved.

[Wlcm2thdwn]

These people are so out of touch that they're still calling him "The artist formerly known as Prince:eek: How much do you think Prince is worried about this, but his lawyers are always ready I hear!:)

[mandy14]

I do'nt understand what the problem is? the album is being given away free at the concert. And more and more people are downloading music anyway these days.

How many people are buying CD's in record stores now adays anyway?:rolleyes:

[littlunkev]

what a load of bull the record stores have never stood behind prince when a new album of his comes out it is never promoted or frount of store good on him for trying somthing new about time all the fat arsed record company bosses stood up and had a look outside of there offices there is a new dawn coming and prince is one of the first to look at new and exciting ways of getting his music out there just worried about profits dont give a shit about the little people prince is giving back to his loyal fans and the people who have realy stood by him all these years........:) :) :) :) :)

[Savage]

HMV will be selling the Mail on Sunday for the first time in stores from Sunday!

They still want a piece of the Purple Pie!

[The One]

Prince Points the Way to a Brighter Future for Music

07.09.07 | 2:00 AM
In his autobiography, Miles Davis wrote that Prince was the only musician in the world capable of moving music forward. Davis was referring to musical prowess, but he may as well have been talking about Prince's business acumen, as evidenced by his recent album giveaway -- the latest in a long series of innovative maneuvers, including his escape from a Warner Music Group contract in 1994, early support for P2P trading and status as one of the first major artists to sell music from his website.
Davis' last, best hope for the future of music most recently outraged the music establishment by giving away (http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/06/prince-shocks-m.html) CDs of his Planet Earth album to British fans who purchased last week's Mail on Sunday (http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/prince/prince1.html) newspaper. In light of the giveaway, Sony/BMG refused to distribute the album in Great Britain, provoking outbursts from music retailers who had been cut out of the action.

Paul Quirk, co-chairman of Britain's Entertainment Retailers Association, threatened: "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behavior like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores."
Part of the problem, according to retailers, is that Prince's move helped solidify (http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2000/08/38142) a growing perception on the part of consumers that music is free.

Jack Horner, creative and joint managing director for Frukt, a music-marketing agency, said that while "people like (Prince) play a key part in helping figure out what the models may be in the music business of tomorrow, by giving away a whole album on the front of a newspaper, there is a very clear devaluing of music, which is not a positive message to send out right now."
Neither the Mail on Sunday or Prince's camp would divulge how much the newspaper paid Prince for the right to give his album away, but it's clear Prince was paid upfront, and that nearly 3 million Mail on Sunday readers -- plus everyone who bought tickets to one of his shows -- received the CD for free. The giveaway almost certainly contributed to Prince selling out 15 of his 21 shows at London's O2 Arena within the first hour of ticket sales. The venue (formerly the Millennium Dome) holds around 20,000 people. If the remaining six shows sell out, the series will gross over $26 million.

Combined with the undisclosed fee paid by the Mail on Sunday, it's not a bad take for someone who's involved in a "very clear devaluing of music."
Prince's latest gambit also succeeded by acknowledging that copies, not songs, are just about worthless in the digital age. The longer an album is on sale, the more likely it is that people can find somewhere to make a copy from a friend's CD or a stranger's shared-files folder. When copies approach worthlessness, only the original has value, and that's what Prince sold to the Mail on Sunday: the right to be Patient Zero in the copying game.

As with blogging and so many other things digital, music distribution could become a competition to see who posts things first. In a sense, music distribution would no longer be about space -- it would be about time.
More bands and labels are likely to explore the idea of squeezing extra value out of their music by selling off the right to be first, as traditional sources of revenue continue to dry up. Universal's recent insistence (http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/07/universal-throw.html) on an "at will" contract with Apple music store, for instance, is thought to be part of a plan for the world's largest record label to start selling the exclusive rights to debut certain albums. And nowhere is it written in stone that music stores are the only candidates for buying those rights.
Artists have licensed music to advertisers for decades, of course, but this goes a step further: allowing the licensee to function as the music's distributor (at least initially). If this idea catches on, artists and labels looking to duplicate Prince's success will have to proceed with caution if they want to avoid accusations of selling out.
In the '90s, a popular slogan for posters and graffiti in and around my college radio station was "Corporate Rock Sucks," and although that attitude no longer seems prevalent, fans still routinely revolt when they hear one of their favorite songs used (http://youtube.com/watch?v=b_3eBFjCNIo) in a car ad.

Prince ensured that the Mail on Sunday version of his album looks identical to the one sold in stores, giving it the clear appearance of coming with the paper, rather than being of the paper. Companies that want to make a business out of music sponsorships, like RCRD LBL (http://www.nypost.com/seven/06112007/business/on_the_download_business_peter_lauria.htm) (an upcoming collaboration between Engadget's Pete Rojas and Downtown Records), will have to negotiate sponsorships with similar care. If they do, brands, fans and bands large and small (http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/02/podington_bear_.html) stand to benefit.

Eliot Van Buskirk has covered digital music since 1998, after seeing the world's first MP3 player sitting on a colleague's desk. He plays bass and rides a bicycle.