Xfm is 'doing a Prince' by offering a free album from The Charlatans. It comes just two months after The Mail on Sunday offered the new Prince album free of charge within its newspaper. The deal with the GCap station has been announced on-air this morning, with downloads starting October 22nd.
The actions of the newspaper has drawn widespread criticism from music retailers, but it is yet to be seen if this download deal will attract similar attention. The album which is currently having the final touches put in place will be available in its entirety as a download early in 2008.
Xfm’s head of music Mike Walsh said ‘Xfm is a proudly innovative brand and we are very excited to be involved with The Charlatans new material in this way. Providing our listeners which such great exclusive content was an offer we couldn’t refuse’.
Lead singer of The Charlatans Tim Burgess said ‘We want 'the people' to own the music and we want the artist, i.e. us, to own the copyright. Why let a record company get in the way of people getting the music? We are excited at releasing our forthcoming singles and 10th studio album online free of charge through Xfm.co.uk’.