Prince's Perfume Deal Costs Him Nearly $4 Mil

A deal Prince made to promote his own perfume is going to leave the diminutive singer nearly $4 million in the purple red ... after a quasi-judge concluded he should fork over millions of bucks for causing the deal to go south.

Revelations Perfume and Cosmetics sued Prince over the "3121" odor in 2008 ... claiming he never lived up to his end of the deal -- to promote the scent.

The New York court ruled in favor of Revelations and a "special referee" -- assigned to make recommendations to the judge on the issue of damages -- has now advised the real judge that Prince should fork over $3,948,798.58.