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Music chain prepares to sell Prince's Mail giveaway, as details of agreement become clear
By Ben Cardew & Martin Talbot
HMV has struck a dramatic deal with the Mail On Sunday to stock the newspaper for the first time, when it gives away Prince's new album this weekend.
The deal, which was revealed to Music Week yesterday (Sunday), is the latest twist in the saga of the controversial Prince giveaway.
Confirming the deal yesterday, HMV Group chief executive Simon Fox - who described the Prince giveaway as "absolute madness" just a fortnight ago - said, "HMV does not condone covermounts. We would obviously have wanted to stock the Prince album, but this is not a possibility.
"Selling the Mail On Sunday next week is the only way to make the album available to our customers. It will create additional traffic in the stores and therefore give us the opportunity to sell other music products to our customers."
Mail On Sunday managing director Stephen Miron says final numbers have yet to be finalised, but that HMV will take tens of thousands of copies. Miron, who adds that HMV approached the newspaper just over a week ago, says that the Mail On Sunday has even written to the UK Official Charts Company asking whether sales of the newspaper will be allowed to count towards the albums chart. The OCC could ...