Music moves on.

So, today is the day that Prince has released his new album by giving it away in The Mail on Sunday, and what a reaction this has got! The outrage this has caused in some people is really quite shocking. There are ultimately two winners in this situation - Prince and the Mail. They've certainly created an event that has generated more publicity than either party could have hoped for. I switched on BBC News 24 this morning only to find myself watching an item about it. Now, I had expected a brief mention, especially due to the reaction to the release by the music industry, in particular that of the likes of HMV. However, I did not expect it to be one of the main stories, though maybe that was quite naive of me!

The Mail will more than certainly receive one of it's highest level of purchases today. I bought it and I never read the Mail as it does not sit well with my own personal views, so I only bought it for the CD, which I suspect many, many people will be doing. Who will refuse an album that costs £1.40? The Mail may well win a few new readers, which I guess is their ultimate aim. Prince has managed to create a huge amount of publicity for himself, mainly through free PR. He has been paid by the paper and will undoubtedly earn even more through tours and the trappings that come with that.

Some of the music industry and those selling CD's have joined forces in expressing their dislike for Prince's actions. They are shouting about the rapid decline of sales of CD's, which is very true. However, maybe they need to accept and recognize that the way in which we buy and listen to music has changed considerably over the last few years. The internet means that many people now download their music (legally or otherwise), whether it's singles or whole albums. Certainly many artists recognize this themselves. Ash have announced that they will no longer be producing albums, but will be releasing individual tracks. Gnarls Barkley shot to number one with 'crazy', through downloads alone. Many artists release a single for download quite a while before the physical single itself hits the shops. There are also those artists who hit mainstream listeners through popularity on the internet - think Sandi Thorn (though there are those that argue this was just a very clever, planned PR stunt!).

HMV have taken the decison to sell the Mail in their stores today. They claim this is the only way they can make the album available to their customers, though they seem to have missed the point. In this case we are not HMV's customers, we are in fact customers of the Mail. I can only imagine that they are hoping that if people buy their copy of the Mail in their stores, they will be enticed to buy more music whilst they are there. This is an acceptable retail trick, but please do not insult us by dressing it up with the 'we care about you getting this album' talk!

It also has to be noted that newspapers have been giving away CD's and DVD's for a long time now. True, the CD's tend to be of older artists and of complilations (I also bought the Mirror today and got a Jerry Lee Lewis CD!), but the principle is still the same. It is just that in this case an artist has decided to release his new album through this avenue. Maybe music retailers need to keep up with their customers and work with us, rather than struggling against the inevitable. CD's will never disappear completely, that was the fear for vinyl, which is increasing in popularity again. Yes, it is convenient to be able to download music, but there is something very satisfying about looking at a healthy collection of CD's!!