Prince irks British retailers

Live in England? Want the new Prince CD? Well, you can tell your local record store to piss off: British tabloid The Mail will include a copy of Prince's new album Planet Earth with the $2.80 purchase (we assume that figure reflects the correct exchange rate) of Sunday's edition, which will hit the streets one day before the CD's official U.K. release date of July 16. The paper's circulation averages 2.3 million. In response, BMG U.K. has canceled the release of Planet Earth, and British music retailers have banded together to protest Prince's move–that is, except for the 400-outlet HMV chain, which has decided to sell The Mail (something it doesn't normally do) on Sunday. Most of the ire, though, has been reserved for Prince, with Paul Quirk of the Entertainment Retailers Association saying, ""The Artist Formerly Known As Prince should know that with behavior like this, he will soon be The Artist Formerly Available In Record Stores."

 
Join the discussion...