Extra! Ray Davies ships new album with newspaper

Who's doing a worse job of adapting to the new media landscape: newspapers or major record labels? Given the new distribution method Ray Davies has drawn up for his new album, it seems like both are in desperate need of some publicity.

On Oct. 21, the U.K.'s Sunday Times distributed a Ray Davies CD mounted to the cover of its latest issue. The free disc contains 10 of the 12 tracks found on Davies' new record, Working Man's Cafe, and arrives more than a week before the album's proper release on V2 Records (Oct. 29).

As Billboard.com reports, this move follows a similar promotion by the rival Mail On Sunday this summer. Prince's new album Planet Earth came with copies of a July issue, and boosted paper sales to the tune of 600,000 copies.

According to a statement by Davies, this tie-in is all "about reaching as many people as possible."

"I'm incredibly proud of this LP and am truly excited that 1.5 million copies will be distributed to people who'll hear it organically, the way it was intended," Davies said. "It's an exciting opportunity I couldn't resist."

Oh yeah, and you can bet that the Sunday Times is promoting the hell out of this CD. There's the career spanning feature on Davies, the free mp3 giveaway of track "Vietnam Cowboys" for registered users, and the glowing... uh... three-star review of the new Davies album.

No U.S. release date has been set for Working Man's Cafe. Does the Sunday Times offer one-day international subscriptions?

Related links:
TimesOnline.co.uk
Ray Davies on MySpace
YouTube: Davies and Damon Albarn perform "Waterloo Sunset"

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