The artist Prince caused a huge stir in the music industry a few days ago when 2.9 million copies of his new CD Planet Earth were bundled with Sunday copies of the UK newspaper The Mail. There was a furious backlash from the music industry -- including his own label, Sony BMG -- at this act of heresy of giving music away free. But it will probably pay off for Prince in the long run. To begin with, The Mail paid him a reported $500,000 for this venture.
Prince's overall logic? Well, his last CD sold only 80,000 copies in the UK. As a so-called heritage artist (meaning one who's been around a while and doesn't sell millions of CDs anymore), he figures since his main income derives from selling concert tickets and merchandise, including sales of his previous CDs, it makes sense to try to attract new listeners and expand his fan base. And offering free music may be the best way to do that. And the UK has been way ahead with that. For years, British music magazines such as Mojo and Q have done that with sampler CDs inserted in their magazines, and the Oxford American does that here at home.
If the music industry had gotten out in front of paid music downloads in a timely fashion, the industry wouldn't be in the pickle it now finds itself in. As it is, the only viable solution for the downloading issue came from a music industry outsider -- Apple's Steve Jobs with his iTunes and iPod. As CD sales continue to plummet, there are few options left for the music business...
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