June 1, 2009 16:23

Joss Stone to pay £2 million to split from EMI

Soul singer willing to give back money to release herself from deal

Joss Stone is reportedly desperate to leave her record label EMI - and is willing to pay back £2 million to the company to free herself of her deal.

Given a £7.5 million advance in 2006 for a four-album deal, reports have emerged that Joss was willing to hand back £1.2 million of the advance as well as £800,000 earnings from her forthcoming album 'Colour Me Free' in order to leave the label.

However, EMI are taking legal action against the Devon-born singer, rpeorts the Daily Mail.

EMI are accusing Joss of being in breach of her contract, saying she failed to hand over the master tapes for her second album for them by the agreed date of December 31 last year.

'Colour Me Free' was recorded in early 2008 in Stone's mother’s studio in Somerset. In March this year the singer spoke out over confusion over the release date, which was initially supposed to be April, but was then put back to July.

The Rolling Stones, Radiohead and Supergrass have all left EMI since it was bought out by Terra Firma in 2007.

Lily Allen has also criticised the label, claiming they put back the release of her second album 'It's Not Me, It's You' because of internal politics.