2005–present

late 2005 Prince struck a deal with Universal Records to release his next album, 3121, on March 21, 2006, (3/21). The debut single from the album was the Latin-tinged Te Amo Coraz?n, the video for which was directed by actress Salma Hayek. The piece was filmed in Marrakesh, and showed Prince accompanied on-screen by M?a Maestro. The song was covered by Viktoria Tolstoy on her new album Pictures of Me, along with another Prince cover, Strollin'. The video for the second single, Black Sweat, was nominated in the MTV VMAs for Best Cinematography. Prince achieved his first career number-one debut on the Billboard 200 with the album.

To promote the new album, Prince was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on February 4, 2006, sixteen and a half years after his last SNL appearance. He performed two songs from the album, Fury and Beautiful, Loved & Blessed, with T?mar. Prince also held a contest to win a trip to see a 'Purple Ticket Concert' at his private residence in Hollywood, California. Seven winning tickets were placed inside 3121 CD packages in the US, and other tickets were given away in various contests on the Internet and around the world. On May 6, 2006, Twenty-four prize winners with one guest each attended a star-studded private party and performance at Prince's home. The Purple Ticket Concert marked the end of a long run of private performances for the Hollywood elite that began in 2005.

Much to the dismay of his fans (and only weeks after winning a Webby Award), Prince abruptly shut down his official NPGMC website at 12:00 AM on July 4, 2006. It had been in existence for over five years. The NPGMC sent out an email, claiming that in its current 4m there is a feeling that the NPGMC gone as far as it can go. In a world without limitations and infinite possibilities, has the time come 2 once again make a leap of faith and begin anew? These r ?s we in the NPG need 2 answer. In doing so, we have decided 2 put the club on hiatus until further notice. Incidentally, the club was shut down on the same day that an opposition to the NPG trademark was filed against it by the British company HM Publishing (owners of the Nature Publishing Group, also NPG). Despite these events occurring on the same day, Prince's attorney reports that it was purely coincidental and that the site did not close due to the trademark dispute.

Prince appeared at multiple award ceremonies in 2006. On February 15, 2006, Prince performed at the BRIT Awards alongside Wendy and Lisa and Sheila E. He played Te Amo Coraz?n and Fury from 3121 and Purple Rain and Let's Go Crazy from Purple Rain, in a performance which was generally regarded as the best of the night.[citation needed]. Later, on June 12, 2006, Prince was honored with a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his visionary use of the Internet that included becoming the first major artist to release an entire album — 1997's Crystal Ball — exclusively on the Web. Orders for Crystal Ball had been placed on Prince's then-website, 1800newfunk.com, but the album was also released shortly afterwards to traditional brick-and-mortar retailers. However, many customers did not receive their orders placed online until long after the album was available in retail stores. On June 27, 2006, Prince appeared at the BET awards. He was awarded Best Male R&B artist. In addition to receiving this award, Prince performed a medley of Chaka Kahn songs in honor of the BET Lifetime award. Prince has previously written and performed several songs with the singer. On November 14, 2006, Prince was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame, appearing to collect his award but not performing. Also in November 2006, Prince opened a nightclub named 3121 in Las Vegas at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. He performed weekly, on Friday and Saturday nights, through April 2007.

On August 22, 2006, the album Ultimate was released. The double disc set consists of one CD of hits, while the second disc contains extended versions and mixes that, for the most part, were previously unavailable on CD.

Prince wrote and performed a song for the hit 2006 animated film Happy Feet. The song, entitled Song of the Heart, appears on the film's soundtrack, which also features a rendition of Prince's classic song Kiss, sung by Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. In January 2007, Song of the Heart won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song. Prince arrived late because of traffic and thus was unable to make an acceptance speech, though Hugh Grant asked him later in the awards to take a bow.

On February 2, 2007, Prince played at the Super Bowl XLI press conference. He and the band played a set of Chuck Berry's hit: Johnny B. Goode, Anotherloverholenyohead from Parade and Get On the Boat from 3121.

Prince performed at the Super Bowl XLI halftime show in Miami, Florida on February 4, 2007. The performance consisted of three Purple Rain tracks (Let's Go Crazy, Baby, I'm a Star and the title track), along with cover versions of All Along the Watchtower,Best of You and Proud Mary. Coincidentally, Miami had rain on the day of the Super Bowl, which was lit purple during the performance of Purple Rain. He played on a large stage shaped as his famous symbol. The event was carried to 140 million television viewers, the largest audience of his life. It also holds the record of the most watched TV performance of the 21st century in the U.S.A.[citation needed]

On May 8, 2007, it was announced that Prince would play 21 concerts in London over the summer. The Earth Tour included 21 nights at the 20,000 capacity O2 Arena. Tickets for the O2 arena were priced at ?31.21 (including a free copy of Prince's latest album), in order to make the concerts affordable for everybody. The residency at the O2 arena was increased to 15 nights after all 140,000 tickets for the original seven sold out in just 20 minutes and then further extended to 21 nights.

On May 10, 2007, Prince performed a 'secret' gig at London's Koko in front of a small crowd (between) fans and celebrities. Tickets went on sale that morning on a first-come-first-served basis (again at ?31.21). A prelude to the forthcoming summer gigs in London, Prince played a relaxed set of classic hits (Kiss, changing the lyric from ‘You don't have to watch Dynasty’ to Desperate Housewives; Girls & Boys; and Nothing Compares 2 U) alongside more recent tracks, plus a well-received cover version of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy. There was controversy as one of the fans brought up on stage by Prince to dance later kissed him only to be ejected by one of his bouncers. Although it appeared it may have been an overreaction as Prince seemed to take the kiss in good humour.

On June 5, 2007, Prince made an appearance at the 2007 ALMA Awards, performing with Sheila E.

On June 28, 2007, the UK national newspaper The Mail on Sunday revealed that it had made a deal to give Prince's new album, Planet Earth, away for free with an imminent edition of the paper, making it the first place in the world to get the album. The date chosen was July 15, 2007. This move has sparked controversy among music distributors and has also led the UK arm of Prince's distributor, Sony BMG, to withdraw from distributing the album in UK stores. The UK's largest high street music retailer, HMV decided to stock the paper on release day due to the giveaway.

On July 7, 2007, Prince played three concerts in his hometown of Minneapolis. Beginning at the Macy's Downtown store, he delighted a small group of fans and VIP's with a set on the 8th floor auditorium featuring his band with special guest Shiela E. This concert coincided with the launch of his new perfume, 3121. Prince delighted the gathering with 3121, Girls & Boys, A Love Bizarre, and Guitar. Sheila E. sang The Glamorous Life with him and Shelby kicked out her rendition of Crazy.

Prince then performed a concert at the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis and ended his night with an aftershow at the famous First Avenue (where Purple Rain was filmed).

On July 16, 2007, Prince was the surprise guest of Montreux Jazz Festival.

On August 3, 2007, Prince was in Prague shooting a video for the song Somewhere Here on Earth. The video has yet to air.

On September 14, 2007, Prince announced that he was going to sue YouTube and eBay because they appear to choose not to filter out the unauthorized music and film content which is core to their business success. A representative told Reuters, The problem is that one can reduce it to zero and then the next day there will be 100 or 500 or whatever. This carries on ad nauseam at Prince's expense. Doug Lichtman, a lawyer for Prince released a statement saying, above all, copyright law can welcome only those with pure motives. Those who abuse the law's caution have no claim for its mercy.

On November 5, 2007, several fan sites of Prince formed Prince Fans United to fight back against legal requests made by Prince to cease and desist all use of photographs, images, lyrics, album covers and anything linked to Prince's likeness. While Prince's lawyers claim that the use of such representations are copyright infringement, the Prince Fans United claim that they are attempts to stifle all critical commentary about Prince.