http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/h...897869.stm

Prince album 'should enter chart'
Prince
Planet Earth is Prince's 24th studio album
A newspaper is calling for a change to chart rules to allow Prince's new CD, which is being given away in the Mail on Sunday, to enter the album charts.

Planet Earth, a covermount in Sunday's Mail, is being "penalised" for being the first album to be launched in a paper, says the publication's manager.

Stephen Miron has written to the Official Charts Company, saying he is prepared to consider legal action.

As a free giveaway, chart rules say the CD is ineligible for chart inclusion.

'Genuine purchases'

Prince's new album, which will be distributed in approximately 2.9m copies of the Mail on Sunday this weekend, "falls out of those parameters", according to Mr Miron.

"It's a first, it's a one-off, so we feel we can challenge them," he said, with regard to the current chart rules.

He also suggested there would be "a lot of peer pressure" from fans to make the Official Charts Company reconsider their position.

The Official Charts Company were not immediately available for comment.


It's a first, it's a one-off, so we feel we can challenge them
Stephen Miron, Mail on Sunday managing director

The chart company has also claimed it would be hard to prove that a newspaper giveaway consisted of "genuine musical purchases", and sales could not be accurately audited.

But Mr Miron says the newspaper will be able to indicate how many CDs have been taken up by measuring the difference between regular sales and those with a covermount.

If deemed eligible for chart inclusion, the album is expected to enter the chart on 22 July.

The deal between Prince and the Mail on Sunday led the UK arm of his record label, Sony BMG, to suspend its planned release of the album.

The US pop star, whose latest album marks his 24th studio release, is due to play 21 concert dates in London later this year.

thats absurd

Its Musicology all over again. I think PRINCE is still doing what he can to cut around the rules of inudstry which is great since its system is already flawed. Truth is by giving this cd away Prince is getting it to the UK market which has not exactly been a strong point for him in a long time, which is very similar to what Prince did with Musicology, because he was able to get around the rules he managed to have Musicology have a long chart life while he stayed on tour, and with all that push he even managed to sell over a million too. In the UK things are a bit different im sure and Prince's sales over the last few albums have not been high, and he really hasnt toured there so this move at least gets his new album to more people than ever, and obviously the shows are sellouts so his name is all over the UK once again where it hasnt been since the later 80's early 90's. Just the fact that there are all these lawsuits, and scandals over one cd is just what Prince had planned im sure.