The timing is ironic. Just as musicians and fans around the globe get ready for this weekend's Live Earth concerts, Prince announced plans to bundle his new CD in the U.K. with copies of Mail on Sunday. The likely result will be hundreds of thousands of additional newspapers printed solely so people can get Prince's CD.

Let's do the math. The Mail on Sunday had a circulation of 2,253,000 in March of 2007. According to The Mail, it sold 2,570,000 newspapers that were bundled with a CD of Mike Oldfrield's Tubular Bells in April. (Other music-related promotions had similar increases in papers sold.) That's an increase of 317,000 newspapers. I'm going to assume -- safely I think -- that demand for Prince's CD will drive up the number of papers sold to at least the same level.

Conservation it ain't. The typical Sunday newspaper makes the old, controversial CD longbox look like a business card. Given the concerns over consumer products' effect on the environment, maybe a better alternative would be to give away a free download at the Mail's website.

The title of Prince's upcoming album, by the way? Planet Earth.