Click here to read more of my thoughts on this.

Now Prince has thrown down the gauntlet and the challenge now for the record industry (majors especially) is change now or die. Fans hate you ! Artists don't need your money ! Other industries are muscling on your territory and are savvy enough to do it well. Throw out the archaic contracts and move with the times. Also quit hyping acts and losing money on them. They will soon realise that a tie in with a paper giving their music away is worth more than a hyped chart.

Ok, I`m playing it now.

I have to say it`s the best thing he has done for years.
Absolutely brilliant.

Isn't giving a CD away with a paper another form of hyping an act? This way, people get it even if they don't want it. I think it somehow cheapens the whole music industry.

What cheapens the music industry is the quality of the music.

IF for convenience I love the free Prince CD the packaging is not on my mind anymore. Worst case scenario is I either buy the inevitable "special edition" in a shop or I put my free-bee in a jewel-case.

Cheap packaging isn't going to devalue the artist or their product. More people will go to a shop and hand over real money than would normally.

Hype and loads of it... the media exposure is worth millions... does the hype exceed the event? Mart thinks not, which is the only opinion I know.

I'm not bothered about the packaging. It's the reduction of the music to the level of junk mail which doesn't seem a good idea. Prince usually produces good music, but I can imagine more than a few copies being shaken out into bins. On the other hand, Paul McCartney got it right by having his music piped throughout branches of Starbucks, thereby getting it known, but people still had to go buy his music if they wanted their own copies.

However, I could understand why an unsigned band might take up the freebie give away/throw away offer.

As for quality of music, what impresses one person might do nothing for others, etc. I think Arctic Monkeys are very poor, but many others think differently. We all judge things according to our own personal standards.

Well, it`s not really a lot different to what has to be done with a new release anyway, all that has changed is the promo giveaways have been given to all and sundry as opposed to a select few.

It will amuse me greatly when the first unwrapped newspaper with a copy in it is sold on E-bay, which inevitably will happen.

Re- the record shops stocking it today, are they allowed to continue selling unsold copies tommorow, or do they have to be pulped as is the case of normal newsagents, with yesterdays papers?

Any mail you don't want is junk mail.

In this case most people would have been looking for it, which makes it desired and not junk mail.

A mistake I made earlier was to focus on the mechanics of this too much. What I missed was the perception, people see it as a free-gift.

People aren't looking at the bigger picture or putting the free CD in context with the music business. Some of us are and we're missing what's actually happened.

Prince is in a unique position, everyone has heard of him and not that many people buy his albums. He had more to gain.

He is releasing the CD through normal channels soon. I've never actually heard any of the tracks off Planet Earth, but I wasn't going to stoop to buying a Daily Mail to get a free copy.

My favourite Prince track is Peach, and then just for his guitar work. I'm not really a great fan of his otherwise.

It'll be interesting to see what impact this has on the future of CD marketing. I suspect it'll be very little in the long term.

cgi.ebay.co.uk/Planet-Earth-Prince-CD-UK...QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Heh!

I had to buy one from Ebay! I was staying with friends in the middle of nowhere on Sunday and by the time I got to the shops all the copies had been sold..

I didn't mind paying 50p more for it seeing as I don't have to bother throwing an unread Mail On Sunday away now!

The real collectors will include a copy of last weeks MOS , fully wrapped along a track listing and full review I expect!

Prince is better at picking up cheques than throwing down gauntlets, which is what he has done here.