Prince loves his fans, Music industry not having it

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Prince, the artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as… Prince, has once again angered the entire music industry, this time by distributing his brand spankin’ new album FREE with the purchase of a British tabloid magazine known as the Mail. The album, Planet Earth, will be packaged with Sunday’s edition of the Mail, priced at $2.80.

Prince has drawn harsh criticism across the entire music industry for his latest stunt. As we already know, the music industry is in the toilet facing rapidly declining CD sales. Not content to just rip fistfuls of cash from the hearts of fans, the biz has decided universally that they can’t afford a single artist to give away their work. This is being considered a “major blow” to the industry overrun with overpriced works from gimmicky boy- and girl-bands of all colors, genres, and levels of sucktitude.

Sony BMG UK, Princes’s local label, has cancelled their own sales release of the CD in Britain, saying it would be “ridiculous” to pursue it’s own sales launch there, but adding that they are still “delighted” to be working with Prince.

“The Artist formerly known as Prince should know that with behavior like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores,” said co-chairman of the Entertainment Retailers Association, Paul Quirk, “”It is an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career.” He added that the deal was “yet another example of the damaging covermount culture which is destroying any perception of value around recorded music.”

A covermount is a CD or DVD attached to the front of a magazine or other publication as a sort of pack-in bonus. The practice is common in Britain in an effort to combat declining publication sales, but they are usually compilation albums or samplers. Prince’s Planet Earth contains new music, as well as some classics, like the song Purple Rain. The Mail on Sunday declined to say how much it paid to secure the deal or how many copies of “Planet Earth” it planned to sell. Its average circulation is 2.3 million copies.

A publicist for Prince’s record label said he wasn’t doing interviews

International sales launch for “Planet Earth” is July 16, and the U.S. launch is July 24. Prince also plans to give away “Planet Earth” with each ticket sold for his 21-date London concert later this summer.

But the controversy doesn’t end with Prince!

Read more for the story on retail turncoats and my thoughts on this fiasco.

Continue reading “Prince loves his fans, Music industry not having it”

60GB PS3’s to vanish by end of July!

PS3 as we know it, is going.

This news comes like a slap in the face for those who cheered when Sony announced a price cut for the Playstation 3. David Reeves, president of SCEE has announced PS3’s will no longer be available after stocks are sold out. Apparently, the price cut was to sell these remaining stocks out of 60GB PS3’s! Way to go, Sony.

Sony will be releasing an 80GB version of the PS3 on August 1st with a copy of MotorStorm bundled. This new version will be priced at $599, which was what the 60GB version was priced at, prior to the price cut. So the equation works out like this:

Sony makes a $599 console and cuts its price to $499. Then it makes a new version of the PS3, priced at $599 and sells out the original PS3, which should be priced at $499. So essentially, the price cut was nothing more than a practical joke from Sony. Anybody who fell for this joke and wants the PS3, my advice is, grab one while stocks last.

[Via gamesindustry.biz]

Star Wars: Force Unleashed’s Trailer, Site spark to life

Force Unleased

Star Wars: Force Unleashed is a godsend for a die-hard Star Wars fan like myself. Force Unleashed, set in the era between Episode III and Episode IV concentrates around a Dark Jedi who is a secret apprentice to Darth Vader, the big daddy. The game has caught public attention because of its ambitious goals and its eye-popping physics, which finally let you use the Force as you like it.

LucasArts released the game’s official site and unveiled the game’s trailer today. The site starts off with the trailer and then reveals several tidbits of info on the game. Some news I found interesting would be that the character roster includes a C3PO-esque protocol droid, PROXY and a hot Imperial spy and three Jedi. The list of Jedi includes Shaak Ti (who was supposed to be dead on Grievous’ ship. Then, she was supposed to be dead at the Jedi Temple. Now, she’s not dead at all!), a Clone Wars veteran, General Rahm Kota and finally, a fiery apprentice to Shaak Ti named Maris Brood.

Our protagonist will be traveling all over the galaxy, from Kashyyyk to Felucia, as well as the galactic junkyard Raxus Prime and a TIE Construction facility (seen in the trailer).

The trailer itself is a beauty. While I’d say the graphics are little off-mark, the trailer as a whole fails to disappoint. Starting off with a jaw-dropping Imperial Star Destroyer crashing into a planet, the trailer takes you through clips as our hero smashes, breaks, crashes, overwhelms, surprises, ravages and well, unleashes the Force. This is really one hell of a thing – to be able to use the Force as you like. This game is going to own.

The game’s trailer can be found at the game’s site or in HD at Gametrailers. May the Force be with you.