On June 7, 1993, which also happened to be his 35th birthday, the artist formerly known as Prince opted to change his stage name to a completely unpronounceable symbol. That symbol, known as the “love symbol” by fans, was often described as “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince” or “The Artist.”
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Believe it or not, this wasn’t just some pretentious spur-of-the-moment decision for Prince. Rather, it was very intentional and reflected an ongoing battle between Prince and his label at the time.
Why Prince Changed His Name to a Symbol in 1993
Back in 1977, Prince signed on with Warner Bros. Records and launched an incredible career. Back then, the label gave almost total creative control to Prince, knowing that what he would come up with would resonate with audiences. That’s precisely what happened, too. They funded his more experimental ventures, which resulted in both sides of the contract making a pretty penny.
Sadly, eventually, a rift formed between Prince and his label. In 1992, Prince opted to extend his contract. The deal was simple: For every album that Prince produced that sold more than 5 million, he would take home $10 million. His previous effort before signing the new contract, Diamonds & Pearls, did a fantastic job commercially. It seemed like everything would go swimmingly.
However, the label wanted Prince to focus on new music. Prince, on the other hand, wanted to root through his unreleased work and breathe new life into it. They didn’t like this approach, and for the first time in their professional relationship with Prince, put their foot down.
Prince decided to make the whole thing as public as possible. He wrote the word “slave” on his face, and then suddenly changed his name to an unpronounceable (and unmarketable, to a degree) symbol.
“It is an unpronounceable symbol whose meaning has not been identified,” Prince said in a statement after the name change. “It’s all about thinking in new ways, tuning in 2 a new free-quency.”
Naturally, this invented symbol does not have a keyboard button. In order to promote Prince’s new name, his label had to send out floppy discs (remember those?) with image files of the symbol to publications.
In 1999, Prince went into more detail about the name change in an interview with Larry King.
“It sort of divorced me from the past and all the hangups that go along with it,” said Prince. “We had some issues that were basically about ownership of the music and how often I was supposed to record and things like that. We got along otherwise.”
Prince’s contract with Warner Bros. would eventually expire in the year 2000, and he promptly went back to using the name “Prince.”
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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