Planet Earth is the title of a studio album by Prince which was released on July 15, 2007 in the UK as a free covermount with The Mail on Sunday national newspaper, followed by a more traditional distribution in the rest of the world. The first single, "Guitar", was distributed in partnership with Verizon Wireless.^[1]

Planet Earth features contributions from former NPG members Marva King, Sonny T, and Michael Bland as well as Sheila E. and former Revolution members Wendy and Lisa.^[2] On 27 June, "Future Baby Mama" leaked to the internet via an American online radio station.

Initially, Prince came to an agreement with Columbia Records to distribute the record worldwide. Prince and Columbia had previously teamed up for the release of his Musicology album in 2004.^[3] However, Prince's management struck a deal with the British newspaper The Mail on Sunday to release Planet Earth as a free covermount CD with the July 15 2007 edition of the paper. This move brought much criticism from UK record stores which resulted in Columbia refusing to distribute the album in the UK, though its release in the rest of the world remains unaffected.^[4]

Giving away albums for free is not new for Prince. In 2004, he gave free copies of Musicology to all concert goers during the tour of the same name.^[5] Similarly, the Planet Earth album was given away with tickets to his 2007 concerts in London.

As a result of the decision by SonyBMG to not distribute the album in the UK, record store chain HMV announced it would stock the 15 July 2007 edition of the Mail on Sunday in lieu of the CD, admitting that "selling the Mail on Sunday next week will be the only way to make the Prince album available to our customers, which, ultimately, has to be our overriding concern." ^[6]

On July 10, 2007, several days before the official UK release through the Mail on Sunday newspaper, a low quality version (recorded from a stream) of Planet Earth leaked onto the internet.

The second single released worldwide from the album will be the double A-sided "Chelsea Rodgers"/"Mr. Goodnight". ^[7] Although not released as a single, "Future Baby Mama" has been gathering radio airplay on American R&B radio and currently is charting within the top 50 of the U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs list.

Track listing

1. "Planet Earth" (5:51)
2. "Guitar" (3:45)
3. "Somewhere Here on Earth" (5:45)
4. "The One U Wanna C" (4:29)
5. "Future Baby Mama" (4:47)
6. "Mr. Goodnight" (4:26)
7. "All the Midnights in the World" (2:21)
8. "Chelsea Rodgers" (5:41)
9. "Lion of Judah" (4:10)
10. "Resolution" (3:40)

Chart success

The album debuted on the U.S. Billboard 200 at number three with 96,000 units sold in its first week. This is less than half of both Musicology and 3121. ^[8] 177,900 Copies sold after four weeks^[9]

Singles

• "Guitar" released 9 July 2007. (#81 UK Singles Chart) (#33 UK Download Chart)
• "Chelsea Rodgers" released 6 August 2007.

References