New Coldplay album leaked (20070618)
From WikiColdplay
Well, no, not really. But, that's not to say that people aren't trying. With the exponential growth of the Bittorrent network and internet piracy in general, media of all sorts are in greater demand, and it seems that pirates are keeping up with it. More often than not, an anticipated album, or even an unexpected one, will appear on some p2p network before it hits the shelves of your local CD store, as the disc is outsourced by people within CD printing factories, pre-release music critics, or some other source. Then again, this is not always the case.
It isn't in any way an understatement to say Coldplay are the biggest band in the world. The crown, once held by many a band from the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, and of late U2, has since been commanded by Coldplay, that mellow soft-rock British band that command not only the crown, but seemingly the surroundings of everwhere they go. So, whenever news of new material from the band hits the net, it is instantly consumed by fans, and people everywhere. Last news from Coldplay about the next album was that they were going to isolate themselves, away from the public, in order to achieve fresh, untainted material. The new album would have little to no piano, it would be more guitar-driven, and most of all, it would be darker. Of course, that means little, since darker has often been miscontrued in a musical context. Nevertheless, the news was taken and held until new information could replace the old.
So, when, last Saturday, a Coldplay "torrent" appeared on the Bittorrent network, it was instantly picked up by any and all who had the good fortune in seeing it. The torrent - those who don't know about Bittorrent, can read up on it here - was labelled as "After After Before," an unknown name to all. So it was quickly grabbed by everyone who had some previous affiliation with the band, instantly thinking it was the greatly anticipated follow-up to 2005's "X&Y." Unfortunately, unbeknownst to many who were caught up in the furore of it all, Coldplay hinted that the new album would be released in 2007 if not later. While an advance copy of an album is not unusual on Bittorrent, a full year before is quite extroardinary, even for the multi-talented pirates of abroad.
Herein lies the interesting thing of it all. It wasn't a new album in the end at all, but rather a fan-made collection of B-sides and rare tracks from Coldplay since their first LP, "Parachutes." Nevertheless, it came complete with cover art, and all the makings of a true album. And this album, "After After Before," isn't alone. In the light of news that pirates are customising installs of Windows XP, making "lite" versions without the software that bloats the operating system, it seems that people are doing similar things with music. Among "After After Before," there is another Coldplay one called "Castles," and the band isn't alone in this trend. Bloc Party's fans have created one called "Always New Depths," compiling b-sides, remixes and rare tracks like This is Not a Competition to create a compelling album.
While the sharks of the music industry surely disapprove of such actions, it is seemingly happening whether or not they like it. User-created or at least user-compiled material is becoming an increasing trend. I'm not exactly an expert concerning the issue about copyright, and frankly that's not really the point - the point is that users are finally taking their freedom to a whole new level. Rather than allowing the music industry to feed them music at the officially appointed time (the direction in which the industry seems to be heading), they are taking control, deciding when and how they will listen to their music.
Of course, as I said, the Big Four wouldn't be happy about and the RIAA sure isn't - as far as they're concerned, p2p is straight from the devil, and it has only been very recently that they've started to even think about using p2p for their own profit. While piracy in general is definitely questionable, the effort of those who making rare tracks and b-sides available to those who are unwilling to buy an album and then shell out an extra $10/$15 each time the band decides to release a single, an occurence which is rapidly increasing. All I can say is that maybe this is the only way that listeners can keep the music industry on their toes instead of allowing them to churn out boring rubbish.
Source: http://www.musictimes.com.au/coldplay-leaked/
