Paul McCartney to give away LP for free... with The Mail On Sunday

Paul McCartney has announced that he is to give away his current studio album Memory Almost Full, with the Mail On Sunday on May 18, putting him in the esteemed company of UB40, Prince, Lenny Crevice Kravitz, Simply Red and Jean Michel Jarre. Enough's enough now, surely?

Macca has sold 100,000 copies of his Memory Almost Full LP, which originally came out last year through Starbucks' music imprint Hear Music. However, via The Daily Heil, he could potentially reach 2million homes. I don't know what's more depressing, the fact that Macca is giving his album away through the Daily Mail, or the fact that 2million people read that shite.

Speaking to music industry business weekly Music Week, The Mail on Sunday's managing director Stephen Miron commented on the deal, saying: "If you look at how he came to do the Starbucks' album deal, it was a result of feeling unhappy with the music industry and looking at alternative ways of distribution. I can't think of anyone else who has come up with the right alternative distribution than us."

Comments

[David Walker]

I'm deeply suspicious of these deals and the use of the word 'free'. If Macca wanted to give the album away, there's a simple way of reaching the masses - offer as a free download.

But I suggest money is involved somewhere - probably from the Daily Mail to Macca's bank account, paid for by increased sales of the paper (and the knock on effect of people maybe buying the paper again).

[Nigel Bevan]

Radio Norwich DJ Alan Partridge swears by the Daily Mail!