Mellow was made available as a free digital download on January 14, 2002, exclusively for America Online members via AOL.com. The track, originally the seventh song on Prince’s 24th studio album The Rainbow Children, marked one of his earliest experiments with mainstream digital distribution outside the NPG Music Club. The Rainbow Children, released in late 2001, was Prince’s first album issued under his reclaimed name after retiring the “O(+>” moniker, and Mellow stood out a