Music retailers fume over Prince CD giveaway

Music retailers have lashed out at musician Prince who is giving away his latest CD in a British newspaper, weeks before its official release on July 24.

"It is an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career," said Paul Quirk of the Entertainment Retailers Association in Britain.

"It is yet another example of the damaging … culture which is destroying any perception of value around recorded music."

The 10-track Planet EarthCD will be included in this weekend's edition of the Mail on Sunday newspaper, which has a circulation of about 2.3 million.

"The artist formerly known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the artist formerly available in record stores," said Quirk, referring to a time in the 1990s when the funk star stopped using his name.

Quirk is also angry at the Mail on Sunday, which has previously given away CDs by Duran Duran, Peter Gabriel, UB40 and Dolly Parton.He's urging the paper to stop the practice.

Stephen Miron, the paper's managing editor, would not divulge how much the Mail paid for the privilege.He said the giveaway would not put music retailers out of business.

"They are living in the old days and haven't developed their businesses sufficiently. We can enhance their business. They are being incredibly insular and need to move their business on," Miron told BBC News.

Music labels are also upset over the deal.

The U.K. arm of Sony BMG is pulling out of its distribution agreement with Prince.

"Given the sheer number of copies we are talking about here it seemed the right thing to do for retailers to become exempt from the deal in the U.K.," said a spokesman for Sony BMG.