Just Call Prince’s Latest Collection ‘ROM ‘n’ Roll’

You’ve got your compact disc player. You might even have a digital compact cassette player. So why buy a CD-ROM player?

For one, it’s the only way to hear “Interactive,” a new song from Prince (we’ve sworn off the symbol--forever). It’s on a new CD-ROM by the singer, titled “Prince Interactive.”

The collection, which will be released June 7 by Prince in association with an Irvine multimedia firm called Graphix Zone, features the new song plus samples of 52 other Prince songs and three video clips: “Diamonds and Pearls,” “Gett Off” and “Endorphinemachine.”

Like interactive products from David Bowie, Todd Rundgren and Peter Gabriel, the disc allows users to remix the music and vocals of songs and review all sorts of Prince trivia. The disc retails for $59.95 (about the price of most CD-ROMs) and will be available at music and computer stores.

But there’s more.

With an estimated 11 million CD-ROM drives expected to be in U.S. homes by the end of the year, record companies are falling over themselves to be first on the block with new product.

Also on the way this summer or fall:

* Compton’s New Media, a Carlsbad firm, is putting together “Imagine,” a CD-ROM that allows you to pore through hours of music and biographical data concerning John Lennon.

* The “Vid Grid” CD-ROM, a puzzle game similar to the popular vidgame Tetris that is built around the use of various rock videos. It’ll be issued by Geffen and Jasmine Multimedia with Microsoft technology.

* An Aerosmith CD-ROM that features a plug-in guitar, where the user follows a game that ultimately leads to a chance to play with the band. Details are yet to be finalized.

On a budget scale, Yes will issue the first CD-ROM single in July. The disc, which is expected to retail for under $10, can be played in an audio CD player or through a CD-ROM drive. Audio cuts include the single “Walls” and a B-side to be determined.

The multimedia portion of the single will offer outtakes from the group’s new album, “Talk,” and interviews pertaining to the single.

The CD-ROM (the name means compact disc read-only memory ) is a disc resembling its audio cousin. They can only be played on CD-ROM “drives” that are found on many new computers and can be added to older ones.

But is this new product the future--or is it the quadraphonic sound of the ‘90s?

Problems over which computer format to support (the IBM compatible or Apple’s Macintosh) still exist. And there’s also the question of whether to purchase other interactive platforms that attach to television sets, such as 3DO and Philips’ CD-I.

“Now is absolutely the time to get a CD-ROM drive,” says Christian Joerg, vice president of new technologies at BMG in New York, though he notes, “one has to walk a fine line between hyping and reality. The reality is that the hardware is building up, so the demand for software is increasing.”

Joerg anticipates that the first platinum CD-ROM (1 million units sold) will become reality next year. “You’re already seeing in the game-oriented area sales of 500,000 units,” he says.

“Five, six years ago, hard drives were an option on computers,” says Norman Beil, head of business affairs at Geffen Records and the idea man for Vid Grid. “Now we take it for granted. By the end of the year, people will say, ‘How can you have a computer without a CD-ROM drive?’ ”