Davies: CD will be given away with the Sunday Times, preceded by a free download track on the paper's website The Sunday Times is to jump on the album giveaway bandwagon by releasing former Kinks lead singer Ray Davies' new solo CD for free on October 21. Davies' album, Working Man's Cafe, will be offered for free with every copy of the Sunday Times while one track, Vietnam Cowboys, will be available as a free download from October 14 at Timesonline.co.
uk. The promotion, which follows in the footsteps of the Mail On Sunday's high-profile giveaway of Prince's Planet Earth album in July, has been heralded as part of a new era for music and newspaper promotion. "This is a first for the Sunday Times and Ray Davies and continues the changing trend in the music industry for artists showcasing their new work," said the Times Media sales and marketing director, Katie Vanneck.
The Davies album, which will be supported by a six-figure marketing campaign including TV, radio and digital advertising, consists of 10 tracks. In July, the Mail on Sunday caused a furore with a groundbreaking giveaway of Prince's unreleased CD Planet Earth. The Prince giveaway saw the MoS's year-on-year circulation rise by 4.
43% to sell an average of 2,319,788 copies in July. On the day of the promotion, July 15, sales figures soared to 2,800,846 copies. The promotion sparked a furious reaction from the record industry, although HMV agreed to sell the paper so its customers could gain access to the CD.
A week later, circulation came down with a bump when the newspaper appeared to lose all of the extra 600,000 sales attracted by the CD giveaway. However, the Mail on Sunday said its sale the weekend after was still 31,000 copies up on its base sale the week before the giveaway. To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediaguardian.
co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332.
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