About 15 freezing Fiona Apple fans, watched by almost as many reporters, gathered outside the offices of Sony BMG on Madison Avenue last Friday to demand the release of Apple’s long-delayed new album.

Led by Dave Muscato, a 21-year-old musician from Columbia, Mo., the group chanted, “We want Fiona!” and asked passersby to sign a petition begun online that had more than 23,000 signatures.

Muscato said that Apple, who has not released a new album in more than five years, had delivered an album to Sony’s Epic Records that was rejected by the label because it lacked a clear hit song. On his Web site, www.freefiona.com, he urges fans to e-mail Sony executives and said he had sent the corporation 1,500 foam apples decorated with the names of 4,000 signers of the petition.

Epic Records said it was still waiting for Apple to turn in a finished product. “It’s our understanding that Fiona is still in the midst of recording her next album,” said Steve Barnett, the president of the label, “and we at Epic Records join music lovers everywhere in eagerly anticipating her next release.”

—The New York Times