In a truly inventive piece of journalism, Mojo have managed to weave Prince’s decision to give away his album for free with the closure of Fopp stores nationwide.

Prince’s decision to give his new album, Planet Earth, with a forthcoming edition of the Mail On Sunday has drawn widespread criticism from the British music industry as a whole, with Paul Quirk, chairman of The Entertainment Retailers Association, declaring it “an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career. The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores.”

Ooh, handbags at dawn from the record store guy! I especially loved the “insult to all those record stores” line. Come on Paul, it’s not as if those record stores were selling Prince records for the good of their health! I’m sure those poor record stores made a few pounds out of their sales of Prince records. What a disingenuous thing to say.

From what I read elsewhere, the decision to close Fopp has more to do with the growing download market and declining sales of physical product. Fopp weren’t alone, as HMV have been feeling the pinch too.

So, Mojo, it wasn’t Prince who dunnit, in the kitchen with a free album in a conservative Sunday paper. Better look at some of the other suspects: music downloads, online retailers like Amazon, and the decline in quality of music generally.

On a personal note, I discovered a Fopp store in London before Christmas, and I really enjoyed shopping there. The stock wasn’t the usual mainstream garbage you can buy everywhere else, and they seemed to have thought about the types of products they were offering. It’s a genuine shame that they’ve been forced to close. But not for Prince presumably.