Planet Earth is Prince's 24th studio album

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.