3121.com

2006/7

Website

3121.com was launched as Prince‘s official website on 4 July 2006 following the closure of the NPG Music Club that year due to a legal dispute over the club’s name. 3121.com was also the final website designed for Prince by his long-term webmaster, Sam Jennings.

3121.com was created to promote the release of the album 3121 and to issue interviews and newsletters and ticket information on Prince’s concert residency at Club 3121, his purpose built revue venue at the Rio Casino in Las Vegas between November 2006 to April 2007. Once the run of shows had finished and the promotion of the 3121 album complete the website was relaunched on Prince’s birthday, 7 June 2007. This time 3121.com was used in the promotion of his 21-night upscaled residency at London’s O2 Earth Tour. Just two tracks were released through 3121.com, the first being Guitar, which Prince also allowed fans to comment on and the track was largely rerecorded for the tour’s accompanying Planet Earth album although it is unclear if this was at the result of their feedback. The second track F.U.N.K. was a response track to criticism Prince received from fans following his lawsuit against several fan-run websites. A third track, a 3:38 acoustic version of Love was available to stream as “Jam of the Week” on 21 October 2007. 3121.com was taken down in December 2007, leaving Prince without online presence until 2009.

Downloads from 3121.com

Guitar

NPG Records

Released

4 February 2007

Running Time

3:18

Format

MP3

Recorded at Paisley Park Studios in 2004, this original version of Guitar was released as an MP3 from 3121.com, with Prince inviting user feedback. The song was rerecorded in 2007 to include heavier guitar parts, that version was released on the album Planet Earth on 24 July 2007.

F.U.N.K.

NPG Records

Released

20 November 2007

Running Time

7:35

Format

MP3

F.U.N.K. was recorded at Paisley Park Studios on 7 November 2007 and released to iTunes on the following day, and then later as an MP3 from 3121.com as well as streamed on princefamsunited.com set up by Prince to distribute it. The original song dates from 2003 but was re-worked in 2007 and released as a “response track” to the online group Prince Fans United (PFUnk) formed in protest against Prince’s claims that a clutch of fan-run websites had breached his copyright.