Transpontine
history is made at night
Did you buy the Mail on Sunday today in order to get the free copy of the new Prince album? I did, hiding behind my copy of the Observer as I came out of the shop in case any of the neighbours saw me. Perhaps it is another nail in the coffin of the record industry (see BBC article here), but it does raise some other questions. Generally I am in favour of the free distribution of music and indeed everything, but what is happening with some music is not a sidestepping of commercial circuits but its integration into other circuits as a form of window dressing for other products. So record labels plot that they may officially release music for free, but we will be only be able to access it if we agree to subject ourselves to advertising. Or in today's example, to get the Prince album we have to buy the loathsome 'Hurrah for the Blackshirts' Mail.