…. of scarcity and abundance (and the artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince)

You’ll remember that Prince famously gave away his last album as a cover mount with the Mail On Sunday and, whilst the music bigwigs threw their hands up in horror, a few of us contemplated that the purple one really understood the new economics of scarcity and abundance – particularly after seeing him live.

Last week Prince announced that his 3 new albums – LOtUSFLOW3R, MPLSoUND and Elixer – will be sold as a triple disc set and will probably retail for less than £10 in the UK. Value indeed (even though he only sings on the first two). However consider this … according to the Guardian, Princes other release in 2009 will be … “21 Nights :The Prince Opus, comprising a limited edition book and iPod, has been announced with a price-tag of £1,500″.

Now £1,500 should buy you a one hell of a book and indeed the report claims “its a massive 280 pages, almost two feet wide, and weighing 17kg”. The book documents Prince’s 21-night stand at the O2 arena in 2007, interspersed with lyrics, poetry and photographs by Randee St Nicholas. A engraved iPod, pre-loaded with Prince’s Indigo Nights live album and a special 40 minute film “made by Prince”, documenting the O2 residency is also included in the package. Only 950 sets will be made available and one lucky “buyer” will win a flight to LA for a private Prince gig.

That’s a smell over £1.4m just on the “special offer” and before any album sales

…. of scarcity and abundance or what ?