''Planet Earth'' is the thirty-second

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American recording artist

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...

. It was released on July 15, 2007 by

NPG Records NPG Records is a record label that was owned by Prince and run by Trevor Guy. "NPG" is short for New Power Generation. It was founded to release his music after Paisley Park Records was shut down by Warner Bros. Records in 1994. Though the 1994 com ...

and distributed, in the UK, as a free

covermount Covermount (sometimes written cover mount) is the name given to storage media (containing software and or audiovisual media) or other products (ranging from toys to flip-flops) packaged as part of a magazine or newspaper. The name comes from the ...

with ''

The Mail on Sunday ''The Mail on Sunday'' is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. It is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK and was launched in 1982 by Lord Rothermere. Its sister paper, the '' Daily Mail'', was first pu ...

'' national newspaper. This was followed by the album's worldwide distribution. It features contributions from his newest protégée

Bria Valente Brenda Fuentes, better known by her stage name Bria Valente Bria Valente Allmusic. is an American singer. A protégée of Prince, Valente released her debut album, '' Elixer'', as part of a three-album set with Prince's ''LOtUSFLOW3R'' and ''MP ...

and former

New Power Generation The New Power Generation, also known as The NPG, was the backing band of musician Prince from 1990 to 2013. They were replaced by 3rdeyegirl as his backing band in 2013. In 2015, the New Power Generation reunited as Prince's backing band for ...

members Marva King,

Sonny T. Sonny T. (born Sonny Thompson) is an American bass player. He was a member of The New Power Generation, Prince's recording and stage band, from 1991–1996. Sonny T. was a member of the Minneapolis bands Back to Black and The Lewis Connectio ...

, and

Michael Bland Michael Bland (born March 14, 1969) is an American musician best known as a drummer for Prince starting in 1989. He was with Prince during The New Power Generation era and played with him live and on albums for seven years. From 1995 to 1997, ...

, as well as

Sheila E. Sheila Cecilia Escovedo (born December 12, 1957) better known under the stage name Sheila E., is an American percussionist and singer. She began her career in the mid-1970s as a percussionist and singer for The George Duke Band. After leaving t ...

and former

Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

members

Wendy & Lisa Wendy & Lisa (briefly known as Girl Bros.) are a music duo consisting of Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman. They began working with Prince in the early 1980s and were part of his band the Revolution, before branching out on their own and releasin ...

. The CD package's liner notes credit the album to Prince & The New Power Generation. The album debuted at number 3 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart, selling 96,000 copies in its first week.

Release and promotion

On June 27, 2007, "Future Baby Mama" was leaked to the Internet via an American online radio station. The first single, "

Guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

", was distributed in partnership with

Verizon Wireless Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the divi ...

. During the week of September 3, 2007, Prince flew to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, and then Spain to film a

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for "

Somewhere Here on Earth ''Planet Earth'' is the thirty-second studio album by American recording artist Prince. It was released on July 15, 2007 by NPG Records and distributed, in the UK, as a free covermount with ''The Mail on Sunday'' national newspaper. This was foll ...

". The clip was released but it has only been played on the TV channel

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los A ...

. Initially, Prince came to an agreement with

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

to distribute the record worldwide. Prince and Columbia had previously teamed up for the release of his ''

Musicology Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

'' album in 2004. However, Prince's management struck a deal with ''

'' to release ''Planet Earth'' as a free

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 remained unaffected. Giving away albums for free was not new for Prince. In 2004, he gave free copies of ''Musicology'' to all concert goers during the tour of the same name. Similarly, the ''Planet Earth'' album was given away with tickets to his 2007 concerts in London. As a result of the decision by Sony BMG to not distribute the album in the UK, record store chain

HMV Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom. The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...

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". On July 10, 2007, several days before the official UK release through ''The Mail on Sunday'', a low quality version (recorded from a stream) of ''Planet Earth'' was leaked onto the Internet. Prince forwent $4.6 million in licensing fees, but the promotion paid off with his subsequent sold out 21-show concert run at London's

O2 Arena O2 Arena may refer to: *The O2 Arena (London) *O2 Arena (Prague) *The 3Arena The 3Arena (originally The O2) is an indoor amphitheatre located at North Wall Quay in the Dublin Docklands in Dublin, Ireland. The venue opened as The O2 on 16 Decemb ...

, earning him a gross of $23.4 million, and thus an $18.8 million profit.

Singles

"Guitar" was the first single from ''Planet Earth''. This song was number 39 on ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'''s list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007. The music video for the song, featuring his current dancers "The Twinz" premiered on the Verizon website. It was directed and written by Milos Twilight, and produced by Prince and Milos Twilight, through Umania Digital Studios and Twilight Films. "Chelsea Rodgers" was the second single released from the album, and was released worldwide on August 6, 2007. The

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

is album track "Mr. Goodnight". A video was made using footage of the band's performance at

London Fashion Week London Fashion Week (LFW) is a clothing trade show that takes place in London twice a year, in February and September. Showcasing over 250 designers to a global audience of influential media and retailers, it is one of the 'Big Four' fashion wee ...

. It premièred on October 28, 2007. "Somewhere Here on Earth" was the third single to be released. On the week of September 3, 2007, Prince flew to Prague, and then Spain to film a

for the song. The video was produced and written by Milos Twilight, Umania Digital Studios and Twilight Films. The full music video premiered on

on February 12, 2008.

Reception

The album debuted on the US ''Billboard'' 200 at number three with 96,000 units sold in its first week, less than half of both ''

'' and '' 3121''. As of April 2015, the album has sold about 278,000 copies in the US, with almost no promotion, with the exception of the Verizon Wireless ad for "Guitar". Although not released as a single, "Future Baby Mama" gathered radio airplay on American R&B radio and charted within the top 40 of ''Billboard''s

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...

. The song won Prince his last

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

, for

Best Male R&B Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance was awarded between 1968 and 2011. The award has had several minor name changes: *In 1968 it was awarded as Best R&B Solo Vocal Performance, Male *From 1969 to 1994 it was awarded as Best R&B V ...

at the

2008 Grammy Awards The 50th Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, on February 10, 2008. It honored musical achievement of 2007 in which albums were released between October 1, 2006, through September 30, 2007. The primary ceremonie ...

. ''Planet Earth'' received generally positive reviews. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, it holds an average score of 65 out of 100, based on reviews by professional critics. Veteran critic

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

gave the album a three-star honorable mention, indicating "an enjoyable effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well treasure". Writing for ''

MSN Music ''MSN Music'' was a part of MSN's web services. It delivered music news, music videos, spotlights on new music, artist information, and live performances of artists. The website also served as a digital music store from 2004 to 2008. History I ...

'', he cited "Guitar" and "The One U Wanna C" as highlights and summarized the album with the remark, "Viva Las Vegas and later for Viagra – but not never".

Track listing

All songs written and produced by

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

*
Planet Earth
' at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

*
The Once and Future Prince
— by

Jon Pareles Jon Pareles (born October 25, 1953) is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of ''The New York Times''.Album review
— by ''

Vibe ''Vibe'' is an American music and entertainment magazine founded by producers David Salzman and Quincy Jones. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip hop music artists, actors and other entertainers. After shutting down productio ...

''
Album review
at

About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, l ...

Purple Drizzle (Album review)
from ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

''
Album Review
at ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' {{Authority control 2007 albums Prince (musician) albums Albums produced by Prince (musician) NPG Records albums Columbia Records albums