Verizon Wireless has nabbed the exclusive for “Guitar,” the first single from Prince’s upcoming album “Planet Earth,” scheduled to be released sometime in July. The single will be available for free to any Verizon subscriber who participates in an online demo of its new Song ID music identification service.

After releasing his 2006 album, “3121,” through Universal, Prince is presently without a label to market or distribute “Planet Earth.” Instead, he is relying on Verizon to generate awareness.

 

“There is no music label involved here,” says Verizon senior VP of marketing and digital media John Harrobin. “That enabled us to work very closely together.”
The only way fans can get the single is to try the Song ID demo, which will be available on Verizon’s website, as well as online video outlets like YouTube, Revver and MySpace.

The demo consists of a clip of the music video for the single and a prompt for subscribers to hold their phone to the computer speaker to ID the song. Once identified, users can then download the song in a single click. Verizon will promote the campaign in a TV ad that begins airing tonight (May 31) featuring both the artist and the music video.

As previously reported, Prince will be busy on stage this summer, and is also about to launch his own fragrance, also called 3121.

Billboard