Prince gives away CD, it isn't for sale, it isn't online!
The artist known as Prince is giving away his new CD. You can't buy it in the shops, you can't buy it online. So in which universe does this make commercial sense?
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I have just bought the new CD 20ten by Prince (July 10). Well I didn't actually buy the CD, I bought a copy of the UK Daily Mirror newspaper for 65 pence (less than a dollar).
The CD was free inside.
And prominent on the front page, it said...
The New Prince Album - Not online! - Not in shops!
So if you can't buy this CD, how is Prince going to make a profit from it?
The answer is...
But hang on, let's consider what would have happened if Prince had sold the CD through the normal channels.
Who would buy the CD?
Prince is a VERY popular artist, but most people already have all the Prince music they want. They will go to his concerts in droves, but not many are interested in anything other than his greatest hits when he was in his prime.
So the CD probably wouldn't sell except to really hard-core fans. And since the sales figures of CDs are revealed through the charts, it could be a little embarrassing for The Artist if the CD didn't chart well. A similar scenario would apply to download. And anyway, the Internet is "dead". Didn't you know?
But sales figures of newspapers are not in the public eye. They have free offers all the time anyway so to them this is just another of many, and Prince will be a good attraction for them.
People who wouldn't have bought the new CD will get the chance to listen to it for free. So the Daily Mirror pulls in extra sales, and Prince gets valuable publicity, the rewards of which he will reap at his next UK series of concerts.
It sounds like a good business model to me. But is it the future for the distribution of recorded music?
By the way, Prince has done this before, with Planet Earth, so clearly he likes to work this way.
P.S. RecordProducer.com review: If you like Prince, you'll like this.
Publication date Monday July 12, 2010
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Discussion on this article's topic...
Jmz, Lyon, France
I agree with Erik from Sweden: your article (and lots of others) says that it's a good business model. Well, maybe for someone like Prince (who -by the way- became famous using the "good'ol'vynil" way) but do you think that you'll seduce a big nespaper company if you're unknown ? It's like Radiohead and others letting people downloading and pay what they want for their latest release. Well, maybe for well-known artists, but certainly not for unknowns.
Wednesday August 04, 2010
Erik, Nor
at Erik, Swe:
Please stop using your automatic "Swedish to English" translation program. The only reason I can (barely) understand your sentences is because I can speak Swedish; when I translate word for word back to Swedish in my head, it is possible to understand you. If you can't bother to write English "manually" then in my opinion it would be better if you did not enter any comments at all..!
Please stop using your automatic "Swedish to English" translation program. The only reason I can (barely) understand your sentences is because I can speak Swedish; when I translate word for word back to Swedish in my head, it is possible to understand you. If you can't bother to write English "manually" then in my opinion it would be better if you did not enter any comments at all..!
Tuesday July 13, 2010
Christopher Woods, Birmingham, United Kingdom
The reason Price has done this before is, as you rightly say, because it makes excellent commercial sense for him.
He gets guaranteed circulation, the paper gets a boost in sales etc. But the real reason? He will most likely have an agreed royalty with an advance, minimal or no returns depending on the terms he's negotiated and it's guaranteed income. Even for someone like Prince, the sniff of absolutely guaranteed cash is probably too tempting to pass up (and as he's done this before he has prior with UK newspapers).
It's a sensible move from him (and his management, if he has any) and shows his marketing nouse.
He gets guaranteed circulation, the paper gets a boost in sales etc. But the real reason? He will most likely have an agreed royalty with an advance, minimal or no returns depending on the terms he's negotiated and it's guaranteed income. Even for someone like Prince, the sniff of absolutely guaranteed cash is probably too tempting to pass up (and as he's done this before he has prior with UK newspapers).
It's a sensible move from him (and his management, if he has any) and shows his marketing nouse.
Monday July 12, 2010
Count, Sydney, Australia
...I think there is more to this than you might think. This was a while ago, but if my memory serves me well, Prince signed a 10 year 10 album deal some time ago, then surprised his record company by delivering all 10 albums immediately after signing the deal! (He had these albums already 'in the can'). This then funded him to do whatever he wanted (having already fulfilled the delivery obligations of his record deal - brilliant!), but the catch was that he couldn't SELL any albums outside of the deal he had just signed.
This might be a more rational explanation of what has happened with The Daily Mirror, and not necessarily fodder to get you all foaming at the mouth about the injustice of modern distribution (which, I agree, does deserve some mouth-foaming!)
This might be a more rational explanation of what has happened with The Daily Mirror, and not necessarily fodder to get you all foaming at the mouth about the injustice of modern distribution (which, I agree, does deserve some mouth-foaming!)
Monday July 12, 2010
Erik, Swe
To Simon. see citate before... Your talk is like a' la --these mp3 files I dont listen becouse they dont have long filenames... Heh, we are SOOO lazy that dont bother to name tracks manually? And since when music has only worth to "consume" when its possible to share in bittorrent or other filesharing networks?! come on, listen more music than ripping and uploading it.
Monday July 12, 2010
Erik, Swe
To Simon. >>>>"and not being able to rip it to my laptop without laboriously naming every track manually, as Gracenote didn't recognise the album, is completely out of step with the way people actually consume music."
Monday July 12, 2010
Erik, Swe
yes (irony), if CD does not sell with 10GBP then we dedicate so hard work in studios in order to get less than 10 pennies from each copy sold with magazine. Whats the next thing: dividing it for free like a free newspapers on the street as advertisement strategy with hope that they come to concert?
Amazing, it works for prince but for new artist....? it takes for ages?
To Simon. >>>>"and not being able to rip it to my laptop without laboriously naming every track manually, as Gracenote didn't recognise the album, is completely out of step with the way people actually consume music."
Amazing, it works for prince but for new artist....? it takes for ages?
To Simon. >>>>"and not being able to rip it to my laptop without laboriously naming every track manually, as Gracenote didn't recognise the album, is completely out of step with the way people actually consume music."
Monday July 12, 2010
Simon Scardanelli, Brighton, UK
Sadly though, this album is rather dull. My copy is already in the charity shop bin - and not being able to rip it to my laptop without laboriously naming every track manually, as Gracenote didn't recognise the album, is completely out of step with the way people actually consume music. Prince's comparison of the Internet with MTV, in terms of falling popularity, confuses the medium with the message. Let's not forget that newsprint is a medium under threat too - so two anachronistic media propping each other up for a few more years makes sense, for now. Sorry Prince, but you may just be showing signs of flagging creativity.
Monday July 12, 2010
Eric Clay, Jamaica, USA
But how will producers like myself get paid royalty payments if music will be given out this way?eric clay from queens new york city.
Monday July 12, 2010
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