If it was leaked early (and I don't believe it was), Alan has already made it very clear that he wouldn't play it, and why.
Again, no way in hell.
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The Album Leak Dilemma: Why Radio Guys Should Never, Ever Leak Songs
It was a Saturday afternoon in November 2004. My wife and I had just moved into a newly-built house six weeks earlier and I was still working on setting up my home office.
I did a routine check of my email—and the new U2 album, How to Dismantle and Atomic Bomb was just…sitting there.
It was a .zip file, which gave me pause. Could it be real? Chances are it was some Trojan or worm, looking to infect dumb people who open unsolicited .zip files or click on attachments with .exe extensions. Still…
I scrubbed with a couple of anti-virus programs and then sent it to a second computer in my house. Once it arrived in that machine’s mailbox, I unplugged the network cable just in case it was malevolent. I scrubbed it again with another program.
Then I held my breath and unzipped the file.
And there it was. Every track in the running order we’d been promised. And the official release date was more than two weeks away.
What would you do? Would you start emailing files to all your friends? Post everything to a torrent site?
As the program director of the biggest new rock station in the country, I could have scooped the world by playing it before anyone else. What would you have done?
I called Paul, my contact at Universal Records. I reached him on his cell at a shopping mall.
“I have the new U2 album, fully mastered in the correct running order. I think you’d better call management in Ireland.”
He did. According what Paul McGuinness later told me, management convened late that night in Dublin and worked out a plan. The leak was plugged and through a combination of stealth, negotiation, gentle prodding and tough talk, the damage was contained. Mostly.
A few radio folks in certain parts of the world decide they’d go for the scoop and certain songs (“Vertigo” had been out as a single for six weeks by this point) made to air.
Why didn’t I go that route? Because once you screw over a band by leaking their stuff, you’re dead to them. Forget ever having any access to the artist ever again. Sure, you’re a hero to a few people for a few hours or day, but at the cost of being labelled a scumball by the artist and their management.
I’ve seen it happen to people who leak U2 songs, NIN material and Eminem. tracks. It’s just not worth it for a person in my position. I’m not into career suicide.