Prince Signs with Universal Records; New Album, 3121, Scheduled for Release in 2006.

NEW YORK -- Prince and Salma Hayek's "Te Amo Corazon" Video Debuts Today across All of VH1's Television, Broadband and Wireless Platforms

Announcing his new musical home, musical superstar Prince has signed an exclusive recording agreement with Universal Records, it was announced today by Doug Morris, chairman & CEO of Universal Music Group, Mel Lewinter, chairman of Universal Motown Records Group, Monte Lipman, president of Universal Records, and Prince. His first release on Universal Records, an album entitled 3121, is set to debut in 2006. Concurrently, VH1 will today shepherd the first audiovisual installment from his forthcoming album, the Salma Hayek-directed video, "Te Amo Corazon" ("I Love You, Sweetheart"), marking the world's first-ever multiplatform worldwide exclusive premiere of a music video.

"The entire Universal Music Group family is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with such a visionary and charismatic talent as Prince," stated Universal's Doug Morris. "Prince is one of popular music's greatest architects," added Monte Lipman. "He is the embodiment of what musical artistry and talent is all about; he continues to be a major trendsetter whose many talents have always earned him the highest respect and praise."

Prince will premiere "Te Amo Corazon" today across all of VH1's platforms: television, broadband and wireless. This unique event will premiere simultaneously today, at 11:00 p.m. (ET/PT/global), on VH1, VH1 Classic, VHUNO, Tempo, VH1 Soul as well as VH1.com through VH1's broadband channel Vspot and through VH1 Mobile through its partnership with Verizon's VCast service. The gorgeous and decadent location of Marrakesh, Morroco provided the backdrop for the incredibly lush ballad and video featuring Prince and Mia Maestro, directed by Salma Hayek.

"VH1 is honored to present this unprecedented multimedia experience with a legendary innovator like Prince," commented Tom Calderone, general manager of VH1.

"Salma heard the song and came up with the original concept," Prince said. "Salma is the most thoughtful, attentive director I have ever worked with. An absolute joy."

Prince's rise to fame was nothing short of meteoric, from a buzzed-about musician (with the release of his first album, 1979's For You) to arguably one of the most acclaimed and influential artist of the 20th century. USA Today has hailed him as "one of the most daring and brilliant artists," just one of the many accolades bestowed on Prince by both critics and peers throughout his career. In fact, a chorus of acclaim literally exploded with the release of the Minnesota native's world-changing, 1984 dual phenomenon of Purple Rain (the movie broke box office records, the Grammy-nominated album sold more than 11 million copies and spent 24 weeks at #1), making Prince one of the few triple-threats in history to simultaneously land the #1 single, album and movie. His plaintively brilliant single, "When Doves Cry," the first of many Top Tens, exemplified the kind of transformational musical current that only Prince could deliver. To top it off, he won the "Best Original Score" Academy Award for Purple Rain. A series of seminal albums - from 1985's Around The World In A Day to 1987's prophetic Sign o' the Times, to 1989's Batman soundtrack to 1991's Diamonds And Pearls, indelibly cemented his reputation as a 21st century impresario, and a fearless pursuer of the musical stratosphere.

With more than 60 million records sold, Prince launched his web-centric NPG Music Club, a groundbreaking, completely autonomous Prince-authorized nexus, emphasizing direct sales and value-added content for Prince fans and subscribers, a virtual template of the kind of online, artist-driven entrepreneurial models artists and internet gurus would be gravitating towards the close of the decade. More groundbreaking albums followed, with Prince himself stewarding their marketing and promotion. A varied array of label distribution deals were interspersed throughout, with major imprints such as EMI, Arista and Columbia, forming temporary but fruitful relationships with the evocative artist.

Last year saw the cultural icon command the mainstream music radar with a vengeance, releasing the critically and commercially acclaimed Musicology (the disc snagged two Grammys), being inducted to the Rock n' Roll Hall Of Fame, and rolling out one of the most successful, talked about tours in music history, (Pollstar Magazine crowned him a top concert draw for the year) coinciding with the two-decade anniversary of his masterpiece Purple Rain. Prince also won an NAACP Image award in 2004 and was most recently inspired to write two songs to benefit Hurricane Katrina victims, "S.S.T." and "Brand New Orleans," both of which are available on NPGMusicClub.com.

About Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group is the world's largest music company with wholly owned record operations or licensees in 77 countries. Its businesses also include Universal Music Publishing Group, one of the industry's largest global music publishing operations. Universal Music Group consists of record labels Decca Music Group, Deutsche Grammophon, Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Geffen Records, Island Def Jam Music Group, Lost Highway Records, Machete Music, MCA Nashville, Mercury Nashville, Mercury Records, Philips, Polydor Records, Universal Music Latino, Universal Motown Records Group, and Verve Music Group as well as a multitude of record labels owned or distributed by its record company subsidiaries around the world. The Universal Music Group owns the most extensive catalog of music in the industry, which is marketed through two distinct divisions, Universal Music Enterprises (in the U.S.) and Universal Strategic Marketing (outside the U.S.). Universal Music Group also includes eLabs, a new media and technologies division, and Universal Music Mobile. Universal Music Group is a unit of Vivendi Universal, a global media and communications company.

About VH1

VH1 connects viewers to the music, artists and pop culture that matter to them most with series, live events, exclusive online content and public affairs initiatives. VH1 is available in over 87 million households in the U.S. VH1 also has an array if digital services including VH1 Classic, VH1 Soul, VH1 Uno and VH1 Country. Connect with VH1 at http://www.vh1.com.