From http://www.billboard.com




Prince Goes In All Directions On New Album




Prince will unveil a new studio album, "N.E.W.S.," on Thursday (June 19) to members of his NPG Music Club Web site. It is not known if the set will be made available to traditional retail outlets. The disc features four songs -- "North," "East" "West" and "South" -- each of which is 14 minutes long. NPG members can also preview three songs from the DVD "Prince Live at the Aladdin Las Vegas," due later this year.

"N.E.W.S." is Prince's first studio release since "The Rainbow Children," which in December 2001 hit No. 4 on Billboard's Top Independent Albums chart and No. 109 on The Billboard 200. The album was made available in stores via a distribution deal with Best Buy's now-defunct Redline label.

Prince is the subject of a recent biography, "Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince," by Alex Hahn. An excerpt from the volume, published by Billboard Books (an imprint of Watson-Guptill), is available here.


-- Ray Waddell, Nashville; Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.