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U2 Threatens to Release Album Early on iTunes

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the hurrying-to-market dept.

Uninvited Guest writes "After a rough cut of U2's latest unfinished album was stolen earlier this week, the band has vowed to release the entire album on iTunes if the music appears on P2P networks. Bono told the London Daily Telegraph, 'If it is on the Internet this week, we will release it immediately as a legal download on iTunes, and get hard copies into the shops by the end of the month.' Is this the exact opposite of the Smashing Pumpkins' last album, which the band rushed to release on P2P networks, before it could hit the stores?"

1 of 572 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It's a hoax. by typhoonius · · Score: 5, Informative

    Who knows; the band has a history of stupid leaks:

    • Around 1981, before the release of their second album, October, a suitcase containing Bono's handwritten lyrics was stolen. Apparently, he sort of ad-libbed it in the studio.
    • In 1990, a three-disc bootleg of outtakes from the Achtung, Baby sessions was leaked. It contained rough takes that would eventually become the songs on the album
    • In 1996 or so, an MP3 of a rough edit of "Discotheque," the lead single for their Pop album, was leaked onto the internet.
    • Around 2000, Bono apparently lost a laptop containing rough mixes of songs from their upcoming All That You Can't Leave Behind. It was returned safely, though, and there wasn't a leak.
    • Later that year, though, the band decided to post 30-second snippets of each song from their new album. They were going to release one new snippet a week until the album was released. Unfortunately, the clueless webmasters had already uploaded all of the songs and just didn't link to them yet, so fans just guessed at the file names and downloaded all the snippets early.
    • In 2002, several different mixes of "Electrical Storm" were played on radio stations and were leaked onto the internet.

    In any case, this new album is about three years overdue. Their last album was released in October 2000, and the tour supporting it wrapped up in December 2001. What the hell have they been doing since then? I dunno, I sort of lost track. Kind of sad when you don't know that one of your favorite bands is releasing a new album soon until you read it on Slashdot.