Prince's Crystal Ball had an award in its future.

The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday that the Purple Rain icon will receive a Special Achievement honor at the 10th Annual Webby Awards for his efforts to distribute music and connect with fans via the Internet.

Long before iTunes and several years before the gloves came off between record companies and file-sharing sites like Napster, Prince became the first major artist to release an entire album--1997's Crystal Ball--exclusively on the Web. The singer also offers multiple CDs-worth of recordings on his graphically savvy Website that aren't available (legally) anywhere else.

"Besides being a musical genius, Prince is a visionary who recognized early on that the web would completely change how we experience music," Webby Awards founder Tiffany Shlain said in a statement. "For more than a decade, he has tapped the power of the Web to forge a deeper connection with his fans and push the boundaries of technology and art."

The elusive artist, whose most recent effort, 3121, became his first album to open at number one, is scheduled to attend the June 12 ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in Manhattan. Prince most recently bestowed his "Kiss" on the American Idol finale audience last week, bringing down the house (and ticking off Simon Cowell) with two songs before wordlessly exiting the stage.

Cowell reportedly is miffed that Prince chose to grace the stage and not perform a duet or meet with any of the returning top 12 contestants, the way that fellow hit-makers Mary J. Blige, Live and Toni Braxton did. "It just tells you how selfish [Prince] is," the Idol judge said with trademark frankness in a statement, per Yahoo Music. "He comes on, not a word--'I'm not gonna sing with anybody else, I'm not gonna say goodbye.' Thank you for your generosity, Prince."

The Webby Awards honor the best in Web sites and the people who make them, and have expanded over the years to include a range of visionaries in the world of digital arts. This year other special achievement honorees include the founders of MySpace and animated rock band The Gorillaz.

The Daily Show's Rob Corddry will host the event this year.