Music Ally

Prince is still taking flak for giving away his recent ‘Planet Earth’ album free with UK newspaper The Mail on Sunday, but the singer has defended the decision in an interview with USA Today.

“We weren’t trying to upstage the record company or disrupt anything. I just wanted to get music out. I asked Sony ‘Were you planning to sell three million copies in London?’ I don’t think so. I sold three million copies overnight and got paid. That’s a good, clear business deal.”

Although true up to a point, Sony BMG may be wondering how many fans outside the UK decided to download the album from BitTorrent for free rather than pay for it, after finding out that it was being given away in the UK.

UK guitar-boyband McFly are the latest band to look outside traditional distribution channels for their new album.  Specifically, they’re doing a Prince, signing a deal to give away three million copies of `Radio:ACTIVE’ with the Mail On Sunday newspaper next month. The band left their old label Island Records earlier this year, and have set up their own label Super Records, which will give `Radio:ACTIVE’ a traditional CD release in September this year.