U2’s New Album Leaks Early Despite ‘Private Hearings’
Written by Ernesto on February 18, 2009A few months ago, four tracks from the upcoming U2 album ‘No Line on the Horizon’ leaked onto the Internet. In order to prevent the full album from leaking before launch, U2 organized “private hearings” for the press, but these failed. Today, ten hours after the album leaked, downloads on BitTorrent are 100K – and counting.
The official release date of U2’s twelfth studio album is set for 27 February in Ireland, early March for the rest of the world.
Unsurprisingly, it began to appear on BitTorrent sites just a few hours ago, well over a week in advance.
In just 10 hours the album has already been downloaded 100,000 times, which is notable for a music album. A few month ago, some of the fans already got a preview of four of the tracks, after a fan recorded them outside Bono’s villa in the south of France.
Unlike those early leaks, the quality full album that leaked today is reportedly of a quality worth listening to. The source of the leak is unknown, but it has to come from someone close to the band as there were no preview copies sent out to the press.
U2 has always taken an anti-piracy stance and wont be pleased to hear that the album is out before schedule. U2 manager Paul McGuiness has been particularly aggressive in his stance against file-sharers and has suggested that people who share copyrighted files should have their connection to the Internet severed. Skip to 2009 and the RIAA and IFPI are indeed pushing for such legislation.
It doesn’t stop there either. In order to prevent their latest album from being pirated, they refused to send out review copies to the press. Instead they organized listening parties where journalists could listen to the album in advance.
These ‘parties’ were of course surrounded by all kinds of security measures – recording devices and even mobile phones were not allowed anywhere near the hearings. Some good that did.
Despite all the effort the album leaked early, and many U2 fans are having a party of their own now. Over 100,000 of them – and counting.
Previously: BitTorrent Still King of P2P Traffic
Next: Pirate Bay Plea: Stop Hacking the Music Industry!
84 Responses
Nice – Just be careful there are a lot of transcodes floating about!
I can’t stand U2, but am tempted to download and seed out of spite.
It’s entirely possible that they leaked this themselves to get more hype about the album.
OVER 9000 SNATCHES!?
swedish ifpi hacked!
http://piratkriget.omfg.se/ifpi.se-dump.png
I believe the official Australian website of Universal Music had uploaded the album to their own servers. Someone found it, it went from there.
Wonder who they’re gonna blame now?
HA!
pwnage..
what a bunch of noobs.. seriously..
Its example like these that are proof that your never going to stop piracy!
like #2, i too want to dl just to piss them off
I bet absolutely any money that they released it themselves.
They would have said something way before now otherwise.
FYI folks, you need to catch on to this. Hollywood has known for way more than 20 or 40 years that doing something taboo makes it popular. Don’t think for a moment that this doesn’t apply to leaking music online or movies, etc.
More accurate it would be said that they are not personally U2 fans, but fans of the music of U2. After all, merely because one likes their music, does not mean that one has to like their person or become a vassal to their wishes.
“Hey Bono, is that your new album?”
-Yeah
“Can I borrow it?”
-No way you filthy poir’te
*20 beers later*
“Hey Bono, can I borr… Bono? bono?”
*Tippy toes*
“Mine now, douche”
good to hear U2 suck and bono a tool.
they screw their fans more than the record labels do
nfo on the rls
Releasegroup: GiELBEELEN (a dutch radio DJ)
Releasename: U2-No_Line_On_The_Horizon-2009-GiELBEELEN
Artist …… : U2
Title ……. : No Line On The Horizon
Genre ……. : Rock
Label ……. : Universal
Catnr ……. :
Source …… : CD
Quality ….. : 187kbps avg / 44.1KHz / Joint Stereo
Duration …. : 00:53:00 (71.2MB)
Ripdate ….. : 18-02-2009
from the nfo pasted on line
the group thank someone know as
Giel Beelen
for the source
i am listening to it now and it is fantastic. you losers are dips.
not a u2 fan personally haha :P
but anywho, yall are pretty fast to write an article already =) great job keep up the great work :D
LMAO
LOL @ Bono and his feeble attempt to stop distribution via P2P.
Ya him and Lars Ulrich should go play some hopscotch.
It’s beautiful.
HA HA! I hate U2 but will dl the album anyway…just out of spite.
I love the assholes who say I hate U2 but I’ll download it out of spite…WHAT?????
If you really hated U2 you wouldn’t download,listen to it,trade it….face it,you shitdicks secretly love U2.
@24, the more we download the more $ the lose.
Feels good man.
Wrong,douche…cuz you weren’t going to buy the album anyway and the die hards will still buy the album…the last album leaked 2+ weeks before it went on sale and in the U.S. it sold 840,000 copies in it’s first week…the best they ever had and in the top 5 highest for a rock group ever…so there goes your theory down the toilet.
@25
That’s what they want you to think…
23 = Idiot. You’re wasting your time. If your ISP caps bandwidth, you’re wasting your bandwidth.
25 = Idiot. As 26 says, many downloaders would never pay for it in the first place, and obviously you wouldn’t have, therefore no money loss. The people who are actually going to buy it will buy it anyway.
27 = Possible idiot, or maybe just a miserably failed attempt to be funny.
I think Gordon summed it up best and made 2,10,14,23 and 25 look like the tools they are
Id love to see the look on bono’s face rofl.
It will probably end up as their best selling album ever due to all the coverage og free advertisement thru channels like this.
If it wasnt for TorrentFreak I would never have heard about the album, but my girlfriend likes them and her birthday is comming up real soon – so maybe.. but only if they didnt infect it with DRM so she can use it on her mp3 player.
“As 26 says, many downloaders would never pay for it in the first place, and obviously you wouldn’t have, therefore no money loss. The people who are actually going to buy it will buy it anyway.”
IF THATS THE CASE THEN WHY ARE THEY FUSSING ABOUT FILE SHARING?
THEY STILL MAKE THE MONEY THEY EXPECT FOR THEIR WORK…
I don’t even like U2, but I’ll download it and create cd’s and give em out to my classmates.
U2 I DO IT FOR THE LULZ
U2=waste of bandwidth, ISP’s should sue the band for producing more crap, sigh
How many times have I said this, if you don’t want it leaked don’t show it to anybody?
29 Feb 19, 2009 at 03:11 by Jack
I think Gordon summed it up best and made 2,10,14,23 and 25 look like the tools they are
i dissagre with 2, he was going to seed = provide faster downloads for the people who would have baught it if they couldnt wait/find a torrent.
…if my isp didnt cap i might have done the same, but that would still mean sharing it with the rest of the world…
“i dissagre with 2, he was going to seed”
put the coma in the wrong place
lotffpmlnol
:D
rather than fussing over the downloader , I think U2 should concentrate finding who leak it out first.
In Europe no one listen that crap but I think they are pretty popular in USA, arn’t they??
Taking a stance against piracy just ensures that more people will pirate your wares out of spite. I wouldn’t listen to U2 because I don’t care for their music, but I’d pirate it just because they’re so against it.
@38 – ur right. Give out to anonymous music files – not Edge’s brother etc who actually pirated the file to begin with.
It’s like when OSCAR JUDGES let movies leak onto the internet. Why isn’t there a full-scale inquiry of who did that, eh?
Prepare to be boarded, ya scurvious lap-dogs! Yarr ha harr!
Hur, downloading out of spite too.
@29 you are a tool.
it is fact that bono a tool and U2 do suck ass.
they do screw their fans. by charging rip off prices for concerts.
.
don’t see why Americans like them one bit
@2
Haha! Me too!
im listening to it
i luv it
i will buy it
@31, what? Your post demonstrates a serious lack of understanding of the technology behind mp3s and DRM. Your girl sure is lucky to have you around.
I too am listening to it… It is by far the best album since Achtung.. AMAZING. I will also buy them album (i’ll probably buy the box set).
Pre-releaser’s have balls, cops don’t really mind someone upping a released movie or album, but pre’s usually get a lot more attention…
Not to sound like a conspiracy nut, but here’s another possibility;
They leaked the album themselves as ammunition for the anti-piracy lobby. “See, we were as careful as possible and the pirates still managed to STEAL our album! You have to do something to stop all this piracy on the internet!”
Damn.
I’ll have to buy this album, only to support U2.
I want bono to finish his gold-plated swimming pool
God I hate Bono, this made my day.
Arrogant twat.
You know I’m a serious pirate… if it was 200 years ago I would be hung by now….. I feel bad going to bed at night if there isn’t at least three downloads running on my computer…..
….but….
I get really pissed off at the attitude shown by a lot of people in these comments. Isn’t it enough that you’re getting to download the album for free? Do you have to somehow demonize U2 and paint them as some sort of corporate mafia out to exploit and use their fans…. these guys live for their music….releasing a new album is a big deal for them, they sweat blood to get it right and I fully understand that they would be really upset to see it leak early like this….. believe me, this was not done on purpose to get publicity… what a stupid thing to say…. this is U2 for chrissakes… do you think they have a hard time getting attention ?
If you don’t like U2 or Bono then fine but keep the stupid justifications that somehow you’re sticking it to the man, to yourself….
Everyone loves to be an “anarchist” and freedom fighter when it costs themselves nothing…. that’s why I respect the Pirate Bay guys… they walk the walk whereas a lot of people here sit in their bedrooms living out their pathetic fantasies of fighting at the barricades…
-IrishBrian (and yes I did download the album :-) …. but I don’t delude myself…also a Spotify Premium user…..)
Lars v2, but with musical talent ;)
(And I’m a Metallica fan!)
@ 23
You seem to be retarded in the face.
ok, Iv downloaded it, do i have to listen it too or I can delete this bullshit right away ?
Internet: HAI!
Bono: Who the fuck are you?
Internet: I AM IN UR ALBUM STEALIN UR TUNEZ
Obviously it wasn’t leaked by a journalist. It was leaked from someone at the DVD fab facility. They need to have a copy in order to have it in stores in a week. That’s where 99% of all leaks come from.
don’t know, perhaps you can burn it on cd and making a gift to someone loving these old men trying to make music
most who say they are the second metallica are retards the manager of u2 wants it to happen not the members or u2 ah fuck it your all retards, except 51
Screw U2.
I didn’t know that many people liked U2. I wouldn’t take it if you could get a free copy from the store.
It almost seems like they leaked it themselves to get more publicity.
The power of p2p is amazing, even more if you’re famous like U2.
It took one week for unknown artist ESPSIX to distribute a free album on P2P to +50,000 on FrostWire, he broke all records of previous legal promotions this past week, it’s amazing that U2 got to distribute 100,000 copies in only 10 hours.
Given all the security measures they took, it seems they can only point at themselves for whoever was responsible for leaking it out.
@45: You clearly have no idea what you’re talking about. Ever heard of Kid A? The album was leaked on Napster a month before it was supposed to be released, and downloaded millions of times between its leak and its release. Regardless of possibly being Radiohead’s most experimental and offbeat album and having been downloaded so many times, it was their very first album to debut at #1 in the US, and debuted at #1 in Uk, France, Ireland, NZ, and Canada. So what #35 was saying is perfectly legitimate, you’re the one who doesn’t understand what you’re talking about.
it’s like the negativland debacle all over again.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.01/negativland.html
Quotes:
“They leaked the album themselves as ammunition for the anti-piracy lobby. “See, we were as careful as possible and the pirates still managed to STEAL our album! You have to do something to stop all this piracy on the internet!”
Taking a stance against piracy just ensures that more people will pirate your wares out of spite.”
“I wouldn’t listen to U2 because I don’t care for their music, but I’d pirate it just because they’re so against it.”
I read a lot of comments similar to these and you people really don’t know what you’re talking about. U2 have never said anything like that. In fact Edge was one of the greatest advocates for Napster during their lawsuit. but all you retards are probably too young to remember that anyway.
It will be interesting to see how the album sells. Will U2 change their stance on file sharing if it sells well despite the leak? Conversely, if the album sucks and no one buys it, will they blame the leak?
Here’s what happened… a new user signed up to u2.interference.com and pointed people to listen to sample clips on the getmusic site (which were very long– around 1:45 long). You were able to pre-order the album from there as well. However, someone tried to buy the tracks individually and it worked.
That new user hasn’t been seen since…
hehehhe i love the fight over who relessed it everone knows u2.
Bono is a huge humanitarian, but he’ll sue the SHIT out of you if you download his album :D
Gotta love double sets of morals :D
And oh yeah, it goes without saying, I wouldn’t download this even if I was PAID to do it!
another music album leaked too soon…so what?
sorry bono, i have none of ur cd’s and i am not starting now with it even if it is for free.
not all like that sh*t!
DO NOT SEED THIS
I don’t think U2 leaked this. I think Dr. Evil leaked as a ploy to render the world’s population deaf and dumb.
Normally I’d say seed out of spite but I just listened to this and I don’t want anyone to endure the pain I just did. Gods my head hurts now.
I wdnt try to write such kind of music to cd becouse there is great chance to make damage at hardware level.
I always think old folks are kinda of special charming!! and so do many hot cougars on ==== Agelessmate.com ==== the place where hot and sincerely ageless people meet and mingle, become friends and even more!!!
Just curious as to why people think it is ok to steal something?
#2 and #10… if you download and you hate U2… then they get someone who would have never owned a U2 album to own one… and then the terrorists win…
I’m downloading because I cant stand the thought of those Irish-Fags getting this the month before I do… but I will ultimately buy it from iTunes on release day because I want apple and u2 to get rich off of this… fuck microsoft… fuck my chemical romance!!!!
it was only their manager who is totally against piracy etc. there was no interview from a band member who meant this.
and they aren´t responsible for paul mc guiness.
the leak source was a mistake of a guy universal music guy in australia. there was a fan who was looking around at the getmusic site and first he thought that they offer some new clips of the album. so he listened and after he checked out that it is the full one, he BOUGHT it directly there and a few minutes later he posted this into several U2 fan website forums and the rest we all know what then happened.
@72:
Stealing = taking something away.
Pirating = making a copy, leaving the original intact.
YAR HAR
U2 sucks btw
we paying ISP every month for the download and upload.So what the point we cant download.
this will actually be in the top 10 albums of all time, i doubt any of u u2 haters have listened to a full track yet
take that Bono!!!
Well since they will charge 150 for a stadium seat they might as well give the music away for free….
Keep stealing. That way in a few years there will be even less music than there is now to listen to because no one has any use in making it if it’s just going to get stolen. Personally, all you pirates should be locked in a room and made listen to Taylor Swift for a week non-stop. Because that’s all there will be in a few years. Truly creative or enjoyable music won’t be made because the people who make it have to wait tables to pay their bills instead of record.
Did U2 screw their fans like many suggest above?How so…
Only people that got screwed were the ones that share a poop nugget as a brain…
Its a leak legit or not…
Not a screw job…
The RIAA should be told to f-off where ever they appear.
justto make it clear they won’t wreck our lives everyone should just delete all their RIAA backed artists and replace them all with covers by Creative Commons artists. then burn HD DVD mp3 disks to give all their friends. start static web servers on an open wifi network tht connect directly to the machine with the music only. screw-drive the ISPs out of much needed network activity.
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