 Prince and Columbia had previously teamed up for the release of his "Musicology" album in 2004.However, Prince's management struck a deal with "The Mail on Sunday" to release "Planet Earth" as a free covermount CD with the July 15, 2007 edition of the paper.This move brought much criticism from UK record stores, which resulted in Columbia refusing to distribute the album in the UK, though its release in the rest of the world remained unaffected.