Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual relations in exchange for payment or some other benefit. Prostitution is sometimes described as commercial sex.
A person who works in this field is called a prostitute, and is a kind of sex worker. Prostitution is one of the branches of the sex industry. The legal status of prostitution varies from country to country (sometimes from region to region within a given country), ranging from being permissible but unregulated, to an enforced or unenforced crime, or a regulated profession. It is sometimes referred to euphemistically as "the world's oldest profession" in the English-speaking world. Estimates place the annual revenue generated by prostitution worldwide to be over $100 billion.
Prostitution occurs in a variety of forms. Brothels are establishments specifically dedicated to prostitution. In escort prostitution, the act may take place at the client's residence or hotel room (referred to as out-call), or at the escort's residence or a hotel room rented for the occasion by the escort (in-call). Another form is street prostitution. Although the majority of prostitutes identify as female and have male clients, there are also gay male prostitutes, lesbian prostitutes, and heterosexual male prostitutes.
Prostitute is Toyah Willcox's 1988 album. It is a concept album and highly experimental in nature, marking a considerable divergence from previous works. It is uncompromising in its style, and is presented as a continuous piece of music, although the notes in the CD version indicate "...to enable the listener to access a particular title a time-code programme has been provided". To accommodate the two-sided format of the LP and cassette releases, side one--subtitled "Lie Down"--contains the first seven titles, and side two--subtitled "And Think of England"--contains the rest of the album. No singles were drawn from the album.
The album was reissued on Toyah's own record label, Vertical Species, in 2003, together with its follow up album, Ophelia's Shadow. In the extensive sleeve notes she provided for the reissue, Willcox explains the gestation of the album, particularly the scrutiny her recent marriage to Robert Fripp was under in the press, and the feeling that by the release of Desire, she had become, in her own words, "staid and predictable".
Prostitute is the fourth studio album by the synthpop band Alphaville.
Following worldwide success in the 1980s, it was Alphaville's first release for five years. It features electronic jazz, new wave music, synthpop, swing music, hip hop, classical ballads and Pink Floyd-like epic electronic music. However, the album's experimental nature and lack of commercial success led the band to return to its synth/dance roots with the following album, Salvation. 200,000 copies of the album have been sold. It is the last Alphaville album to feature Ricky Echolette.