U2’s first studio album in over 4 years is rumoured to be scheduled for release on November 18, 2008. However, some tracks from the album have already been leaked over the Internet.
The lead singer, Bono, was playing some new songs from U2’s forthcoming album, which fans speculate might be named “No Line On The Horizon”, at his Beach home in Eze-sur-Mer, in the South of France.
The music was apparently loud enough for a passerby on the beach nearby to hear and record on his mobile phone. The Dutch U2 tribute band member, Ben van Riemsdijk, later discussed this with other fans on U2 fan site, Interference.com, and eventually proceeded to post four of the songs on YouTube.
YouTube, as usual scrambled to delete the songs from their website, fearing yet another lawsuit for copyright violation. Reuters reports that the quality of the recording was extremely poor due to external disturbances. The songs, however, are still being circulated privately via emails and other file-sharing sites, according to the Irish Independent newspaper.
A few months ago, U2’s manager, Paul McGuiness, had lambasted Internet Service Providers for allowing pirated music to exchange hands and not taking on the onus to fight piracy.
This however, is not the first time, that U2’s music has been stolen. They have lost their albums several times in the past, to muggers, chambermaids and eavesdroppers. This is also the third time that fans have managed to tape new songs, while they were being played very loudly by Bono.
The band were reportedly not too bothered by the leaked recording due to its poor quality. Given the number of times such leaks have happened to the group, one would expect such complacency on their part. It can’t be denied that the same fact also might indicate a cheap publicity method that U2 fans repeatedly seem to fall for!
