Prince, the music business' most notoriously persistent free agent, has signed a deal with hometown company Target to be the exclusive seller of his new three-CD set for the bargain price of $11.98.
The package, available March 29 in stores and online, will include two Prince albums -- "Mplsound" and "Lotusflow3r" -- and another, "Elixer," by his new discovery, Bria Valente.
After famously feuding with his longtime label Warner Bros. Records, Prince has done a series of one-album deals with various major labels since 1996's 3-CD "Emancipation" on EMI.
This is his first exclusive deal with a retailer. The Eagles and AC/DC did similar deals with Wal-Mart, and Guns 'N Roses with Best Buy.
Target has had exclusives on a Christina Aguilera hits package and Christmas CDs by Taylor Swift and others, but this is the Minneapolis retailer's first exclusive for a new studio album by a major artist.
"We are thrilled to have the opportunity to share his most recent work with our Target guests," said Mark Schindele, Target's senior vice president of merchandising.
No word yet if Prince's color for this new project is red.
Always looking for maverick ways to market his recordings, Prince gave away more than 2 million copies of his last studio album, "Planet Earth," free via a Sunday newspaper in London in 2007; Columbia Records distributed the disc in the United States. His most recent recording -- a live-in-London disc -- was included in his 2008 photo book, "21 Nights."
