Despite the best efforts from the U2 boys to keep their new album under wraps, No Line on the Horizon has started to seep onto file-swapping networks – a week before its official launch.
I’m sure die-hard U2 fans won’t be going anywhere near these networks, but apparently CD-quality copies of the band’s 12th album, which is due for release here in Ireland on 27 February 2009, and worldwide on 3 March 2009, started cropping up this past Wednesday on BitTorrent,and copies have also been detected circulating on www.livewire.com. Interesting.
This brings us back to last summer, when four tracks from the forthcoming Line on the Horizon were leaked out onto the internet, prompting U2 to opt out of sending review copies of the album to the press. Instead, they chose to have gatherings of journalists listen to the tracks, banning them from having recording devices – even mobile phones.
U2 manager Paul McGuinness has even brought a vocal campaign against file-swapping sites, pointing the finger at some of the tech giants for allowing piracy. He also directed his wrath at record labels, blaming them for their lack of foresight and planning.
Poor U2. The band has had a tough time of late regarding unreleased music tracks. In 2004, just before the release of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, the band declared that a CD containing unfinished music from that album had been stolen after a photo shoot in France. It seems even U2 can have a bad day!
By Carmel Doyle
