Well, not quite for those of you outside the UK. As you are probably aware by now, British tabloid Mail on Sunday bundled Prince's latest CD entitled Planet Earth with its July 15 issue. Pictured is my disc and its sleeve on the lower left hand corner together with the article in the paper on the Artist. As a longtime Prince fan, I was overjoyed to be able to buy his latest release for the not-so-princely newsstand, I mean, newsagent price of £1.40 ($2.85 in increasingly worthless dollars). Like Chaos and Disorder, this release features a lot of guitar work from his Purple Highness. Given the general absence of guitar work from soul music nowadays, Prince provides a welcome respite from the usual synths and drum machines. A live drummer, fancy that! Thrown in as well the usual dose of falsetto-inflected balladry. I can't complain too much; I'd even say it's better than his previous release, 3121. You may be thinking, "what sort of new business model is this of distributing your music for free?" Well, I have yet to figure that one out. The "review" in the newspaper has this to say on his attempts to Prince and Revolution-ize the increasingly unprofitable music biz:A spokesman for Prince said: 'Prince feels that charts are just music industry constructions and have little or no relevance to fans or even artists today. Prince's only aim is to get music direct to those what want to hear it. Prince famously took a stand against Warner Records in the Nineties when he went on strike and appeared with the world "slave" drawn on his cheek. Subsequently, he regained control of the publishing right to his work and broke down the existing system through his innovation.'
Planet Earth, which is not due to go on sale until July 24, will also be given away free to holders of tickets to Prince's London 02 concerts in August and September. When asked recently why he had decided to do this, Prince replied: 'It's directing marketing as well, and I don't have to be in the speculation business of the record industry, which is going through a lot of tumultuous times right now.'
Is Prince trying to spite record companies (again), too rich to care, or creating buzz for his upcoming concert stand at the 02 Arena (aka Millennium Dome)? Go figure. Prince was always a politically conscious performer. Remember "Ronnie Talk to Russia" off the Controversy album released all the way back in 1981? Well, the title track does the same thing for environmentalism here. Good stuff: for £1.40 I can't complain. I wish more artists would adopt the Prince method of record distribution. I'll even buy the News of the World! When it comes to giving his fans freebies, Nothing Compares 2U, Prince.
