Prince unveils pricey book and iPod set

Anyone who thought Prince was being uncharacteristically frugal when he released his three-CD set, Lotusflow3r, for only $11.98 at Target will be relieved to hear that the Purple One has quickly returned to his decadent ways. Prince unveiled yet another new website yesterday, The Prince Opus, which outlines a new line of products available to a very select group of his wealthiest (or most obsessed) fans.

The Prince Opus is a 280-page, hand-bound book of photographs taken by Randee St. Nicholas during Prince's 21-night stand at the O2 Arena in London. Accompanying each book is a limited edition Prince Opus iPod, which is expectedly purple, and includes an exclusive 40-minute movie made by Prince himself. The pricetag for this velvet-covered bundle of joy? $2100.

Only 950 copies of the book and iPod are being produced, each of which will be hand numbered. The iPod also comes loaded with a live soundtrack from Indigo Nights.

As if the $2100 book-iPod combo wasn't extravagant enough, the Prince Opus website also details a forthcoming auction in which His Purpleness will sell a piece of art called "The Masterpiece," which is essentially a diamond-encrusted Prince symbol. Given that the Masterpiece includes 21 regular old diamonds on top of 5 rare diamonds that total 7.77 carats, there's really no telling how much Prince will rake in for this little piece of jewelry.