4. Giving Albums Away With Newspapers And Tickets Prince
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG301CI1rHs Pint-sized popstar Prince is known for a fair few things changing his name to a symbol is probably the one that most people will remember but his overwhelmingly generous album releases have probably made his name more than his music this century. In 2004, Prince awarded anyone who was going to his Musicology concerts with an album of the same name; his 'Planet Earth' album was also given away with gig tickets, but what perhaps caught most attention was giving 'Planet Earth' away with the Mail On Sunday. UK record stores criticised the move, so Columbia deciding against stocking the album at all; HMV however took the bold decision of stocking the issue of the Mail that contained the record, claiming it was the only way that they could sell the record. Jay-Z made headlines last year when he struck a deal to put his latest album 'Magna Carta Holy Grail' on all new Samsung phones, meaning that the album sold a million copies overnight without actually being sold directly. It's a scheme that Prince seems to have adopted as the norm, as latest album '20Ten', released conveniently in 2010, followed the example of 'Planet Earth', this time being released with copies of the Daily Mirror; sales of the paper reportedly increased by over 330,000. Unsurprisingly, the Mirror gave Prince a favourable review for the record.