Prince

Prince is an American singer-songwriter. He has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career and founded his own recording studio and label. In addition, Prince has been a "talent promoter" for the careers of Sheila E., Carmen Electra, The Time and Vanity 6, Jill Jones, Apollonia 6, Wendy & Lisa, The Family, Morris Day, Mazarati, 94 East, Madhouse, Andy Allo, 3rdeyegirl, Andre Cymone, The New Power Generation, George Clinton, The Revolution, Rosie Gaines and his songs have been recorded by these artists and others such as Chaka Khan, The Bangles, and Sinéad O'Connor.

Prince also has several hundred unreleased songs in his "vault". He has won seven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, the first year he was eligible. Rolling Stone has ranked Prince No.27 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Prince has a wide vocal range and is known for his flamboyant stage presence and costumes. His releases have sold over 80 million copies worldwide.

In 1993, Prince changed his stage name to the Love Symbol, which was explained as a combination of the symbols for male (♂) and female (♀). Because the symbol had no stated pronunciation, he was often referred to as "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince," as well as "The Artist." He changed his name back to "Prince" in 2000.

In 2007, several fan sites of Prince formed "Prince Fans United" to fight back against legal requests they claim Prince made to cease and desist all use of photographs, images, lyrics, album covers and anything linked to Prince's likeness. While Prince's lawyers claimed that the use of such representations constituted copyright infringement, the Prince Fans United claimed that the legal actions were "attempts to stifle all critical commentary about Prince." A few days later, Prince released a statement denying the fansites' claims, stating "The action taken earlier this week was not to shut down fansites, or control comment in any way. The issue was simply to do with in regards to copyright and trademark of images and only images, and no lawsuits have been filed."

In 2009, LotusFlow3r.com was launched and streamed some of the recently-aired material and promised opportunities to listen to and buy music by Prince and guests, watch videos and buy concert tickets for future events. However, a year later, he closed the website claiming that the "Internet's completely over." and refused access to the album to digital download services. But, in November 2011, Prince re-released a reworked version of the song Extraloveable, which first appeared on his 1999 album “Bootleg Collection Vol. 1', and made it available online through both iTunes and Spotify.