A couple of years ago, we pointed out that newspaper covermounts were shaping up as a huge threat to the music (and video) industry hegemonies (our word of the week, kiddies). Look and learn, children: today we read that Prince has done a deal to give away his new album with a future issue of the Mail on Sunday.
Coming as this does the same week that beleaguered retailer HMV announced a 73 percent drop in profits, the industry has responded in the only way it knows how, when faced with a challenge from the ‘talent’: with kicking, biting and scratching. The chairman of the Entertainment Retailers Association, Paul Quirk, is quoted in The Guardian:
It would be an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career [...] It would be yet another example of the damaging covermount culture which is destroying any perception of value around recorded music.
[...] The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behaviour 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.
Ooo, get her. Like, after his long fight with the labels, here at the start of the 21st century, the Purple God really cares whether his music is on shelves, as long as his fans can buy it (and of course turn up to his gigs at The O2 later this year).