Prince rules.:headbang:
May U live 2 see the dawn. - OP's extra comment
David Sapp
Prince's Planet Earth: Brilliant in More Ways than OnePosted July 27, 2007 | 04:08 PM (EST)
James Brown would be proud of "Chelsea Rodgers," the standout track on Prince's new album Planet Earth released earlier this week. However, Donald Trump may be even more proud of the way Prince has been conducting business lately. Since the days when he wrote "slave" on his face in protest of what he believed was the recording labels' exploitation of artists, Prince has enjoyed being a royal pain in the ass to the music industry.
The funny thing is that even though there is no doubt that Prince is a musical genius, it's not really the music on Planet Earth or even his recent live shows (including his spectacular rain-soaked performance at Super Bowl XLI, just nominated for two Emmys), that has ensured his continued brilliance.
The risk he took last week in England provides us with an illustration. Before its official release, Prince gave away nearly 3 million copies of Planet Earth with the Sunday edition of a newspaper. Prince's decision enraged much of the music industry, including Columbia Records (who was under contract to distribute the CD worldwide) and record-store chains that said Prince was disrespecting them by not following the traditional ways of selling music (and thus cutting their profits).
The record stores threatened boycotts, Columbia Records canceled the distribution deal in England (but not elsewhere), and Prince somehow came out on top. While the newspaper deal apparently paid Prince approximately what he would have earned through record sales (according to Jon Parales), Prince must have gained even more satisfaction in preventing the music industry from taking its normal cut. And despite the controversial deal, or perhaps because of it, Prince's upcoming "21 Nights in London" tour is nearly sold out.
Now the music industry is scrambling to figure out what happened.
About three years ago, Prince gave away millions of copies of his CD, Musicology, at U.S. concerts. And a funny thing happened as a result: the copies he gave away counted as record sales, boosting the CD up the charts where it remained--more or less--throughout the tour. Was it fair for Prince to give away CDs and then benefit from his position high on charts traditionally based on record sales? Perhaps not, industry insiders believed. However, the chart position, no doubt, led to increased ticket sales for his concerts, resulting in Prince's tour being the most profitable of 2004.
Now, in 2007, Prince is making another creative move, this time with a twist. He's still giving away CDs to promote his live performances (instead of the other way around). But this time, instead of scheduling a grueling six-month tour in which he performs nightly in every small city with a 25,000-seat arena, he has set up performance "residencies."
That is, following several high-profile TV appearances last year (e.g., the Oscars, American Idol finale, etc.), he set up for several months in a small theater at the Rio in Las Vegas where he played intimate yet high-profitable weekend shows. Ticket packages, some that included dinner served by Prince's personal chef and informal jazz concerts after each show, cost fans several hundred dollars each. Then, in recent months, Prince moved west to Los Angeles to the Roosevelt Hotel, and now, after making a quick stop in East Hampton where he played a quick gig (for $3000 per ticket), he's off to London for three weeks of shows. ......(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sapp/princes-planet-earth-br_b_58167.html
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
