Prince: 'takes public indifference as a signal to plough on'. Photograph: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty
I've always thought that Prince never got his due for pioneering textspeak. Well before the SMS message became common currency, he was employing jarring combinations of letters and numbers, such as Nothing Compares 2 U and I Would Die 4 U. The tradition has been continued in the ad for his just-announced 21-night London residency in August, when he'll be "per4ming his greatest [surely gr8est?] hits 4 the last time".
Part of the £31.21 ticket package is another Princely innovation: a free copy of his new album, which won't be available in shops. This generous gesture, which he first tried in America in 2004, while touring the album Musicology, is his version of "direct marketing". As he said at a press conference yesterday: "I don't have to be in the speculative business of the record industry."
According to the Official Charts Company, albums given away as a bonus aren't eligible for the chart, so it seems as if Prince has deliberately decided to forgo a chart position, and the sales that would have gone along with it. Just another maverick move from the musician who's spent his adult life basking in the regard of just about everyone who likes pop music? Or an admission that he no longer sells as many records as he used to?
You have to wonder. His track record has been patchy since the early 90s, when he had a row with Warner Bros over ownership of his master tapes. The success of Musicology and 1994's Come, which reached number two and number one respectively, has been overshadowed by the disappointments of The Black Album (36), New Power Soul (38) and Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, which didn't even reach the top 75. But suppose we attribute that to the fact that noodly funkadelica - his preoccupation at the time - doesn't sell. All he needed was to come up with some tunes, right? Apparently not. Last year's 3121, regarded as his most tune-packed in years, just squeaked into the bottom of the top 10.
Any other artist would see the writing on the wall. Prince, though, takes public indifference as a signal to plough on, adding to a catalogue that's already creaking under the weight of 25 albums. And he'll undoubtedly carry on for as long as he's able, probably settling into the life of a low-key jobbing funksmith and releasing records solely over the internet in his senior years.
Here's the quirky thing, though. As a live performer, Prince is still so popular, it's as if the 80s never ended. His 2004 American tour was the biggest-grossing of that year, and a half-time performance at this year's Superbowl was acclaimed as one of the best in the event's history. Drilled as rigorously as a military band, his backing group is the tightest in the business, and Prince is the strutting popinjay frontman with a bagful of classic songs at his disposal. No wonder he feels confident about playing 21 nights in London. And if the audience enjoys the new album, that's just a bonus.
