Seems someone walking outside Bono’s French villa heard the U2 front man blasting four new tracks off their forthcoming album, and decided to record them.  In an obvious next step in this world of piracy, the man then posted the leaked material on YouTube.  It didn’t take take long for the tracks to be taken down from the site, but the damage was already done.

The songs are said to be from the new album “No Line On The Horizon,” and include the tracks “Moment Of Surrender,” “For Your Love,” and the title track “Sexy Boots,” according to CNet News.  This seems to mimic a similar situation back in 2004, when just before the release of their last album, “How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb,” the band reported that a CD containing unfinished music from the album had been stolen after a photo shoot in the south of France.

It’s kind of ironic that U2’s manager Paul McGuiness has been so outspoken when it comes to music piracy.  He’s even gone as far as to approach service providers to ban people who pirate music.  He even suggested earlier this year that Apple and other makers of digital music players were wrongly profiting from their “burglary kits,” whatever that means.  He placed much of the blame on various tech companies for no apparent reason, but also pointed a finger at record labels that “through lack of foresight and planning allowed a range of industries to arise that let people steal music.”

Like I’ve always said when it comes to music piracy- while I don’t agree with it, I think the overall goal for any artist is to get their music heard, no matter the method.  Given, it voids any profit and promotes more “free distribution,” but it’s going to happen one way or another.  In this case, all it would have done is give fans a downgraded sampling of four songs off the upcoming album, most likely helping promote the album more than anything.  What’s the big deal?

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Entry was posted on Sunday, August 17th, 2008 at 11:37 pm under Music, Piracy.

Read more entries by Justin Montgomery.
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