Prince to play three L.A. shows in one day

By Mitchell Peters

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Prince has a busy schedule next week. In addition to performing three nights in a row (March 25-27) on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno," the Purple One is scheduled to play three back-to-back concerts at separate venues in Los Angeles on March 28.

Prince is hoping the live appearances will help build anticipation for the March 29 release of his two new albums, "LOtUSFLOW3R" and "MPLSoUND." The two CDs, along with a third by new artist Bria Valente, will be available as a three-disc set exclusively through Target for a price of $11.98.

Prince is also launching a fan subscription service called Lotusflow3r.com (www.lotusflow3r.com/). For $77 a year, subscribers will get an as-yet not fully outlined set of content that will include exclusive music, video, lyrics, artwork and photos.

On March 28, Prince is scheduled to perform three full-length concerts at Los Angeles' $2.5 billion L.A. Live sports and entertainment complex. Doors for the first show, at Nokia Theater L.A. Live will open at 5:30 p.m.; doors at the Conga Room open at 8 p.m.; and doors at Club Nokia will open at 11:30 p.m.

Fans will be required to purchase separate tickets for each concert. Tickets go on sale March 22 via ticketmaster.com and lotusflow3r.com for $77 (plus additional fees).

Prince is the latest music star to release new music exclusively through a major retailer. AC/DC and the Eagles were among the acts who sold millions of CDs through their partnership with Wal-Mart.

(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)