Just found this at StarTribune.com

The Prince life: Two new discs, same old shroud of mystery
Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune

Published August 10, 2003 POP10

The more Prince changes, the more he stays the same.

With a new instrumental CD in stores and a concert DVD due next week, the Twin Cities' favorite musical genius and cultural freak show has not let his guard down with the media and has only slightly given in to major record companies.

The vocals-less disc "N.E.W.S." is an independent release issued last month through his revamped pay Web site, the NPG Music Club (http://www.npgmusicclub.com). Only a few local shops have it, including the Electric Fetus in Minneapolis and what's left of Sam Goody and Musicland stores.

Prince's "Live at the Aladdin" DVD -- recorded Dec. 15 in Las Vegas -- should be more widely available starting Aug. 19. It's being distributed by Hip-O Records, a specialty label owned by Universal Music.

The tie to Universal has some Prince watchers announcing his return to major labels, after a long battle with Warner Bros. Records in the early 1990s and brief stints with EMI and Arista.

Hip-O President Pat Lawrence, however, said Prince's deal is not so dramatic. The singer previously signed a publishing deal with Universal, meaning it manages his songwriting royalties.

"We're in no position to -- nor would we want to -- tell Prince how to go about doing his business," Lawrence said.

"Prince is someone who's very interested in finding new solutions to the ongoing problems within the music industry, and so is Hip-O," Lawrence said, going on to describe Prince and his handlers as "easy to work with and smart about what they want."

Mysterious ways

One thing that Prince and his Paisley Park cohorts apparently do not want is any contact with the media. Early this year, the singer stopped working with New York publicity firm Susan Blond Inc.

Since then, repeated calls to Paisley Park have gone unanswered. The Star Tribune's only contact with the singer's inner camp recently was with the online administrator of the NPG Music Club, who refused to be named and declined to answer questions beyond touting the new discs and Web site.

The old, $100-a-year, glitch-plagued NPG site was rebooted in April, with a new, cultish look and a smaller annual fee of $25. On the new site, members enter a gated palace and roam through rooms that include a recording studio -- where fans can mix their own Prince jam -- and a library filled with biblical passages.

While the new NPGMC gives the image that Prince is opening up his house to fans, that's far from true in real life.

He called off his annual summer celebration at Paisley Park this year. Many fans don't even know which city Prince is calling home these days. Rumors persist that he and wife Manuela mostly live at their house in her native Toronto. (The singer's local acquaintances, however, say he's still here often.)

Prince angered fans July 23 with an e-mail from NPGMC asking members to send in "anything with a [Warner Bros.] logo that was unofficially released during Prince's tenure at that label." The e-mail gave a post-office box number in Vermilion, Ohio, and gave no hint whether fans would ever see the merchandise again.

Fans immediately laid into the singer on an unofficial Prince Web site, Prince.org (http://www.prince.org). (NPGMC bans disrespectful talk in its discussion room.)

One fan wrote that the e-mail fiasco "will go down in history as the day I lost the absolute last shred of respect for that hypocritical cry-baby." Others simply laughed off the idea that they would send in expensive, rare recordings simply out of respect for Prince.

Not surprisingly, no explanation has been given for the e-mail.

Chris Riemenschneider is at chrisr@startribune.com.

Here's the link: http://www.startribune.co...26115.html