📰 Musicology – Digital Album Release : Mar 2004

Prince’s Musicology became available for digital download via the NPG Music Club on March 29, 2004, two days after the launch of his Musicology Tour. The album — his twenty‑eighth studio release — was given to all concertgoers throughout the North American tour (March 27 to September 9, 2004), a pioneering ticket‑bundling strategy that later prompted Billboard and Nielsen SoundScan to revise their chart rules. Physical editions followed in April 2004, issued by NPG Records and distributed by Columbia Records, marking Prince’s first major‑label partnership in five years.

Partially recorded in Mississauga, Ontario, Musicology signaled a return to R&B‑driven craft and became Prince’s most commercially successful album in years, reaching number three on the Billboard 200 and entering the top ten in multiple countries. The album earned Grammy Awards for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance (Musicology) and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance (Call My Name), and was certified double platinum by the RIAA in January 2005. A purple vinyl edition was later released in February 2019.