Prince Newspaper Threatens Legal Action

The Mail On Sunday has threatened legal action against the Official UK Charts Company if it doesn’t allow Prince’s latest album, ‘Planet Earth’ – which is being given away for free in the newspaper – to become chart eligible.

As previously reported on Gigwise, the newspaper will distribute 2.9 million copies of the album with its Sunday edition (July 15th). The paper has paid Prince £250,000 for the distribution licence.

However, the UK Charts Company have said that the album will not be chart eligible because it wouldn’t be able to audit sales properly.

Stephen Miron, the Mail On Sunday’s Managing Director, has sent a letter to the company demanding that the newspapers copies of the album be chart eligible.

The letter read: “Given our belief that this album should still be included on the official UK album charts and having responded to your issues, I would urge you to reconsider your previous position as a matter of urgency, before we engage our lawyers for legal advice to force a challenge to this restraint on our trade."

Miron added that the Mail On Sunday was "considering its position" on possible legal action.

Meanwhile, extra tickets for Prince's O2 Arena residency will go on sale on Sunday at 10am.

Prince's dates are as follows:

London, O2 Arena -

August - 1, 3, 4, 7, 10, 11, 14, 17, 18, 24, 25, 28, 31
September - 01, 06, 09, 12, 13, 16, 20, 21