Nearly 20 million people worldwide bought Purple Rain in 1984, by 2001, the fan base willing to shell out for Rainbow Children was a hardcore 300,000. U.K.’s sales of last year’s heavily promoted 3121 were just 80,000. From forgotten has been to headline news in 3 weeks and with at least a few hundred thousand reintroduced to, Prince arrangement with Mail On Sunday, a British news publication has catapulted him back to front page. Prince forged a deal with Mail on Sunday to exclusively distribute his 46th album, Planet Earth, free-of-charge ahead of a July 16 release date. Mail on Sunday distributed nearly 3 million copies with the Planet Earth CD included for free, after paying about GBP250, 000 to Prince for the license.
The timing of the stunt was carefully timed to promote Prince’s 21 shows at London’s O2 Arena, a venue with a capacity of 20,000. With 15 shows sold out within the first hour of sale, and if the remaining 6 follow suit, the concert series will gross almost GBP15 Million. And that’s before merchandizing is factored in. Not bad for an artist accused for ‘devaluing music’ by the music industry.
A now-dismantling recording industry is fueling innovation inclusion deals like these. Sure, the population is bigger than ever, disposable cash is enormous, and the appetite for fresh music is reaching all-time highs. However, the stampede that characterized the record-store-of-old has now vanished, and demand for 14-song CDs is eroding rapidly. Meanwhile, distribution and promotional outlets have diversified and splintered, and that makes the game trickier than ever- for both big name and developing artists. Today’s game: more opportunity, yes, but how to reach the decentralized masses?
Prince’s latest unconventional sales approach succeeded by acknowledging that copies, not songs, are just about worthless in today’s digital age. The longer an album is on sale, the more likely it is that people can find somewhere to make a copy from a friend’s CD or a stranger’s shared-files folder. When copies approach worthlessness, only the original has value, and that’s what Prince sold to the Mail on Sunday: the right to be Patient Zero in the copying game. In a sense, music distribution is about time.
With a sponsorship deal here and an exclusive show there, worldwide television appearances and music given away, Prince has remade himself as a 21st-century pop star. As recording companies bemoan a crumbling market, Prince is demonstrating that charisma and the willingness to go out and perform are still bankable. He doesn’t have to go multi-platinum - he’s multi-platform.