Music retailers are furious that Prince is giving away his new album, Planet Earth, with copies of the Mail on Sunday.

The promotion is believed to be worth about £250,000 to the musician, whose hits include Purple Rain, Raspberry Beret and Money Don’t Matter 2Night.

But the giveaway has angered retailers, who called it “an insult” to high street record stores.

It also dealt a blow to Prince’s record label, Sony BMG, which has shelved plans to release the album in the UK.

BBC News

Prince’s last album, 3121, only sold 80,000 copies in the UK, so giving away 3 million is at least shifting some units. I don’t think Prince would have sold that many through regular retailers. The Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) agrees, claiming that most of the CDs won’t be listened to. Impressively, 3 million albums is almost double Prince’s total sales for the last ten years in the United Kingdom. The ERA is contacting environmental groups about the waste the abondoned CDs will create in landfill.

Prince is also giving away copies of the album to people who purchase tickets to his upcoming concerts, although at £31.21 a ticket this is less of a bargain.

This is the first time in the UK an album has been promoted using a newspaper like this, and not been sold in stores. The Mirror is trying to get the giveaway included in sales for the week, giving Prince a number one album.

I personally think the whole thing is genius. It doesn’t matter whether anyone takes advantage of the offer, Prince still gets paid £250,000. Then there is the controversy that gets him publicity and he prevents illegal downloads.

All of this seems like a bit of a storm in a teacup, but my favourite quote out of the whole saga would have to be this one from Paul Quirk of the ERA:

Paul Quirk, co-chairman of the organisation, 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.

Yeah, we all thought Prince was crazy when he turned into a symbol. Turns out he’s pretty business savvy too.

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