Prince has launched legal action against 22 people for spreading unauthorised live recordings of the musician online.

The US icon is claiming $22 million for the proliferation of live bootleg music on sites like Facebook and blogs.

The court action, which was initiated earlier this month, reads: "The defendants in this case engage in massive infringement and bootlegging of Prince's material.

"For example, in just one of the many takedown notices sent to Google with respect to Doe 2 (aka DaBang319), Prince identified 363 separate infringing links to file-sharing services, with each link often containing copies of bootlegged performances of multiple separate musical compositions."

It added: "Prince has suffered and is continuing to suffer damages in an amount according to proof, but no less than $1 million per Defendant."

It seems the users are facing the action for posting links to bootleg music.

Prince meanwhile recently confirmed that he will tour "in and around" London in February as he promotes the album 'Plectrumelectrum', which was recorded with his all-girl group 3rdEyeGirl.