>Prince took this approach in England and it seemed to work for him. His CD >was given away with a newspaper, and his shows sold out.

His shows would've sold out anyway. He's an established megastar. I wonder if any of the tracks from the giveaway CD have had any airplay?

Prince is really a different breed altogether. He's a studio guy as well. I read somewhere that he has so much stuff recorded and in his archives that he could release albums every year for the next century and not run out.

He's also done weird things with tours, like announce dates a few days before the gig is to take place.

Also, Prince is a guy who has a very strong back catalog and I'm sure some killer mechanical royalties coming in. He can give away new material and still tour because, quite honestly, the folks aren't going to be coming out to hear the new stuff. They want to hear the hits. The stuff they heard on the radio. The stuff they saw on TV.