Prince hits dance floor — and bolts label system anew

NEW YORK: Prolific pop icon Prince is out with a new album of dance-friendly funk and, in the latest twist to his tortured relationship with the music industry, he is exclusively streaming it.
Called “HitNRun Phase One,” a reference to the famously eccentric singer’s recent tours where he announces concerts hours before taking the stage, the album out Monday recaptures the vigorous feel of live Prince who remains sprightly at 57.
Prince released the album only on Tidal, in a coup for the streaming service led by rap mogul Jay Z that has struggled to make its mark since a star-studded debut in March.
The immediacy and artistic control of Tidal appealed to Prince, who in the early 1990s wrote “slave” on his cheek and changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol to protest label Warner Brothers’ control over his copious output.
But his latest move is especially striking as it comes little more than a year after Prince reconciled with Warner, which put out two of his albums simultaneously in September 2014 and agreed to release remastered editions of his earlier work including seminal 1984 album “Purple Rain.”