8564 - Prince (2) ‘Love Symbol’ Font Floppy Disks - Sent to the Press by Warner Bros.

Prince (2) ‘Love Symbol’ Font Floppy Disks - Sent to the Press by Warner Bros. Two original 1993 Warner Bros. Records promotional 3.5″ floppy disks containing the font for Prince's 'Love Symbol,' distributed to the press so that writers could reproduce the glyph he had adopted as his name. Each yellow disk bears a front label printed with the symbol and "Prince," and each reverse is annotated in red, "MAC." Untested and in fine condition, with discoloration to the labels. Accompanied by two letters of provenance. The first is from David Nathan, who received his disk from Warner Bros. Records in 1993 while working as a music critic for the Galveston County Daily News. The second is from Michael Walker, who acquired his while writing for a music paper in Tempe, Arizona. The symbol served as the title of Prince’s 1992 release, his 14th studio album, commonly known as the Love Symbol Album. On his 35th birthday in 1993, he announced in a press release that he had changed his name to the same glyph, describing it as ‘an unpronounceable symbol whose meaning has not been identified.’ The change was not a legal one, but a new stage name that signaled his frustration with the record industry and with Warner in particular. Because the symbol couldn’t be typed on a keyboard, the press took to calling him ‘The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.’ Warner Bros. mailed thousands of the font disks to media outlets.