Music Industry Attacks Free Prince CD

Mike writes "You might not like Prince, but he's planning on giving away a free CD in a national British newspaper. Harmless publicity, right? The music industry disagrees. Executives are practically going insane over the idea and are threatening to 'retaliate'. 'The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behavior like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores. And I say that to all the other artists who may be tempted to dally with the Mail on Sunday,' said Entertainment Retailers Association spokesman Paul Quirk, who also said it would be 'an insult' to record stores. Shouldn't an artist be able to give away his own music if he wants to without fear of industry retaliation?"

Comments

Nothing like admitting it

[overshoot]

I love it -- they're actually foaming mad enough to publicly admit that they're engaged in a conspiracy in restraint of trade based on blocking artists' access to radio and retail.

Should make for utterly gripping testimony in the antitrust lawsuit under Sherman Act Part One.

Re:Please retaliate.

[Ngarrang]

Prince is rich. He is content with his career. He was already in one tizzy with the labels and bolted, which made him more money. He became Prince again, made more money. He already owns his own recording studio. Okay, so he may lose a distributor or two. Prince has never shown himself to care about the NORMAL way of doing things.

Re:Please retaliate.

[sogoodsofarsowhat]

Exactly. Who would not read this and think: 1) Big business record companies crying about this? 2) Little ole Prince...who is a man of the people. (He really has looked out for his fellow recording artists...and helped many escape the trap that is the RECORDING companies contracts.) 3) How will this tantrum help the record companies...it wont. Prince who was already a hero in my book for fighting the record companies and kickin their asses. (over his name / music)....is now approaching GOD status. I hope he does this again and again...and continues to PISS on the record companies. They have everything to fear from him. he does not NEED THEM AT ALL!!! and he is gathering new artists to the cause. He is getting their music made without the contracts for ownership of the musicians soul and he is breaking the mold. You may not like his music but as far as the man goes...there is little not to like. A lot think he was just an oversexed pop star...but truth is he is quite talented and very smart. Go Prince Go. I will do what i can to buy your music and your produced music. One last thing about the big record companies...you would think they would have learned that squaring off against Prince has been nothing but a dismal loss for them...yet they continue to act in ways that destroy them. As for the retaliation....BRING IT ON MFer's....I know Prince aint scared of you...and in a caged death match my moneys on Prince.

Re:Key line

[Rinikusu]

Disclaimer: I'm a musician. I'd prefer people to buy my music rather than just download it for free because, obviously, I can use that money that they pay to do things like pay my rent, eat something other than ramen noodles, fix/replace equipment, and put gas in the van (not to mention maintenance). Touring is "where the money's" at, so people keep saying, and I keep seeing "touring" as a break-even proposition at *best*, and most artists, if you bother to ask them, will tell you they're losing money by touring. Unless you're pulling in thousands of people to see you where economies of scale work better for you, merch sales are "pleasant bonuses" which means I might can eat something that's not on the 99 cent value menu for a meal. Not to mention that this is with a pretty decent network of people to give up couches and floors to save on Motel costs. Now, at age 34, it's harder and harder to do these kind of tours. Let's face it: I'm not in the next Green Day or Metallica or whatever. Those guys are the exceptions. Even Fugazi (who make a small mint touring and on record sales) are exceptions to the rule. The vast majority of working artists are not rich. We rely upon our friendships and networks to keep us fed and sheltered when we're out on the road. We all have to quit jobs after saving up a small wad of cash just to tour, and once we get back, we come back to stacks of unpaid bills, eviction notices, storage room fees, unfaithful significant others, and the realization that the drummer (guitarist/bassist/etc) is a fucking prick and have to kick him out and look for a new one. Touring bands rarely keep jobs for more than a few months (imagine how that looks when you're applying anywhere), rarely have time to "improve skills" for better paying jobs (say, programming), and generally have a really tough time. Many bands break up during tours due to the fact that once you're in close proximity with your bandmates 24/7 for months at a time, stuffed in a van, sleeping next to each other on a cold, hard floor, and that every character flaw is magnified due to lack of proper sleep, nutrition, and stress. Not everyone can hack touring constantly.

And those of us who can, well, we generally love what we're doing. It's worth it.

So, from the artist's standpoint, I want you to buy my music. I want you to pay the $5-$10 we charge at the door and come see us because that $5-$10 really just gets us to the next show. Hell, I want you to buy a T-Shirt for $10 (HA!), a bunch of stickers ($1), a button ($1.50), and give the band a blowjob, because, well, I'm selfish that way.

But, if it comes down to strictly exposure, I want everyone to experience my music, whether they pay for it or not. If someone finds my music on Limewire, I want them to get it and hear it. You'll find most musicians have the same notion. /ranting at work (at least I have a decent paying tech job to support my losing effort)

Re:where to start?

[Kadin2048]

disrespectful to record stores? Hwah? How? Because they don't get to sell the CDs Prince decided to give away? I recently gave a camera to a friend... should the local camera shop be angry? I dinged their sales!

Replace "camera" with "music," and "local camera shop" with "giant media conglomerate," and the answer, I think, is yes.

It seems that in the past 10 years or so, many corporations have decided to treat anything that denies them revenue as if it's identical to actually taking something they already had. Personally, I think it's an effect of the type of cash-flow accounting and projection that's now overwhelmingly popular, where the entire worth of your business (read: stock price) is based on how much money you think you're going to make. When it turns out that, oops, you didn't actually make that much money, they go absolutely berzerk and start looking for anyone to pin the blame on. Because, to them, they've already made that money, in some weird way, as soon as they started projecting it.