Do You Think U2 Plan Their "Leaks"?

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Michael Griffiths

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Their have been many, many instances where U2 songs have been leaked. Just to mention the recent ones...
10 of the 30 second samples from ATYCLB were "accidentally" left on U2.com for some poor unsuspecting person to hack into. Later, ATYCLB was leaked by someone who lived in Iceland, if I remember correctly, (which sounded a little odd to me, but whatever), and now we have Bono giving a DJ, of all people, the "demo" version of 'Electrical Storm'??? A DJ who just happens to work for BBC Radio 1. Hmmm...I'm thinking what better way to generate a little hype than to get a DJ to play the new single before its release? Oh, but it was just a "gift," of course! Haha. Right. If they do plan them -- or "set them up" -- I must say, I do like U2's style.

Questions, comments, cries of outrage all welcome...
 
YES, especially this time...and we have been givng them all the market research they wanted...

I dont think the ATYCLB snippets on U2.com was done intentionally, they put them on their server and just didnt think anyone (Riversteed from Interference in October 2000)would be smart enough and have enough time to play with the file extensions and make them work!
 
It seems a little fishy to me too.

Didn't something like this happen with "Discotheque" too? I didn't have the internet back then, but I remember hearing something.
 
The early leaks are totally planned. The only one I don't think was planned was the Outtakes. Those are the only leaks that Bono has ever talked about. The band never said really anything about the other ones. The band has always created a buzz about themselves before releasing anything since POP. The Buzz is cool:happy:
 
I'm sure they purposefully set "leaks." Why shouldn't they? I don't care what the record executives say, leaking helps sell albums.
 
Discotheque and Wake Up Dead Man

Anyone remember the fishy story behind the early leakage of the Discotheque and Wake Up Dead Man snippets? A member of Wire claiming to be from Bulgaria claimed he hacked it from U2's old MSN Pop Web site. Or some such nonsense. I remember being too thrilled about the new U2 to care about the decidedly unlikely explanation. What was that guys name again?? Anyone remember? Victor? Or Martin??

MAP :coocoo:
 
Re: Discotheque and Wake Up Dead Man

Matthew_Page2000 said:
Anyone remember the fishy story behind the early leakage of the Discotheque and Wake Up Dead Man snippets? A member of Wire claiming to be from Bulgaria claimed he hacked it from U2's old MSN Pop Web site. Or some such nonsense. I remember being too thrilled about the new U2 to care about the decidedly unlikely explanation. What was that guys name again?? Anyone remember? Victor? Or Martin??

MAP :coocoo:

I remember this well - off the old WIRE. And I think it was Martin from Hungary (or that's how he always called himself :D ).

However, the story I recall him stating is that he acquired a special "demo" taping of these songs. He said that it was a short video that U2 was presenting to their label to show them the progress on their album. It contained the two 30 second clips of the two songs and some other filler. He made .wav files of those songs and put them on the 'net. Soon, everyone was downloading them and burning them onto CDs! I heard that in the U.K., bootleggers were selling CD's of those two clips (a total of 1 minute in music) for $10!!

I'm not so sure though that this leak was "planned." Supposedly, Island contacted Martin and had him remove the sound files from his website. Of course, at the time, all of us agreed that this was some of the best FREE marketing U2 ever received! So even if this was truly "accidental" it worked well for U2. I'm convinced that this is why U2 had 30 second clips of the new AYTLCB songs a few years later - to generate that hype again.
 
madonna's child said:
I'm sure they purposefully set "leaks." Why shouldn't they? I don't care what the record executives say, leaking helps sell albums.

I dunno, the only people who care about things like snippets and early demo's are the real fans and you can count on them buying the singles/albums anyway. If there is indeed some intentionally leaking going on, it could be just to amuse themselves about all the hype surrounding these or just to keep the fans busy.

I hope Bono leaked it on purpose, or else he'd be a complete dumbass for giving the demo at someone from the BBC. :happy:
 
DrTeeth said:


I dunno, the only people who care about things like snippets and early demo's are the real fans and you can count on them buying the singles/albums anyway. If there is indeed some intentionally leaking going on, it could be just to amuse themselves about all the hype surrounding these or just to keep the fans busy.

I hope Bono leaked it on purpose, or else he'd be a complete dumbass for giving the demo at someone from the BBC. :happy:
I see what you are saying, but I think the point of a leak is to generate hype not just among the "hardcore fans," but also the general media. And in this context, this particular leak of 'E-Storm' worked. It's all over the print, radio and television music media as we speak. Just check out youtwo.net for proof.

I also don't buy the argument that these leaks are not planned on the basis of record companies closing sites and getting upset. It clearly has nothing to do with the record companies. It's the band that "plans" these leaks, if anything. Somehow, I don't think Bono is too concerned about what the record company thinks about something like that, as long as they don't think it was his intention. (And I'm not saying it is, but it could be, and that's the point of this discussion...)
 
definitely - the band is very tech savvy and they know the power of the internet.

bono would not just "give" a demo of a new song to a friend who 'happens' to be a DJ...
 
They are scripted ...

From the Achtung Baby Outtakes ..to the ZooTV soundboards (not the broadcasts) -TO PROMOTE ACHTUNG
...to the early versions of Discotheque and Wake Up Dead Man - TO PROMOTE POP
...to the earpiece recordings of a lot of Popmart shows ...to the Popmart videos from the official cameras (Vegas full show comes to mind) -TO PROMOTE THE POPMART MEXICO VIDEO RELEASE

...to the video snippet of TGBHF ...to the publicity stunt of Bono allegedly losing his laptop then looking like a hero for rewarding the finder a princely sum - TO CREATE BUZZ ABOUT ATYCLB

...to the alleged "weekly updates" of the ATYCLB preview tracks when in fact they were all there in the first week - TO PROMOTE ATYCLB

...to the ALD recordings of Elevation Tour stuff -TO PROMOTE THE BOSTON VIDEO

...and now to this alleged demo version of ES. It's all obviously pre-planned and well-calculated.

U2 aren't only musical geniuses, they are marketing geniuses too.

Cheers,

J
 
OK, here's something I heard last night on Musique Plus (which is basically our MTV here in Montreal):
The VJ said that Bono apparently attended the wedding of the dj that leaked the demo on the radio and that his wedding gift was to give the guy a copy of the demo so that he would be the first to play it. Don't know if there's any truth to this but it does sound like something Bono might do...
 
I'm 1000% convinced that they are involved in the leaks. They are very intelligent and technically savvy, and they'd be completely ignorant (which we know they aren't) if they didn't know what would happen.

You don't think that someone they have working for them isn't on these pages every day monitoring these threads (or even their record company -- but most likely someone working directly for them -- they are independent enough)? Abso-bleeping-lutely. They are a corporation (like it or not) with a marketing department, etc., and they can attract and hire the best in the business to test and analyze every avenue.

You better believe they are involved!

They absolutely understand how resourceful their fans are (we are a reflection of the band we love), and they know that we pounce on every inch they give. And no matter how "from the heart" their music is, don't think for a minute that they aren't calculating. They're smart, they use all their resources, and we are a huge resource. I'm not trying to make us sound or feel overly important in the scheme of things, but we most definitely are.
 
Yeah, I've believed since the Discotheque leak that U2 has been somehow involved with the leaks of their new music. Let's face it, when Acthung Baby was being recorded you heard nothing from U2 for about 2 years. Sure this was before the Internet, but still nothing.

The leaks that did come out of those sessions were thoroughly denounced and lawsuits followed.

Zooropa, Passengers you heard nothing until the product was released.

Then during Pop, which was made in the Internet era there were all kinds of information that surfaced. First the Martin snippets leak, and then a site, that will remain un-named, gave us the unfinished version of Discotheque.

Somehow I just can't believe that the BBC would play this 'so-called' demo of 'Electrical Storm' without some sort of OK, from either Principle or Universal. I'm not sure, but I think the BBC is pretty much by the book, right?

I think this was a planned leak, no doubt.
 
Noo doubt that BBC would play this song without permission from U2. If they played that U2 would never do an interview or concert or any sponsers. This is one of the biggest compainies in the world they are professional enough not to do this!!!

PLANNED LEAKS!!!
 
lady lemonade said:
OK, here's something I heard last night on Musique Plus (which is basically our MTV here in Montreal):
The VJ said that Bono apparently attended the wedding of the dj that leaked the demo on the radio and that his wedding gift was to give the guy a copy of the demo so that he would be the first to play it. Don't know if there's any truth to this but it does sound like something Bono might do...

Hello,

If you replace guy with girl in the quote above (and he with she), then you are totally correct. The DJ was the bride, not the groom. I only forgot her name... Ah well, nevermind.

C ya!

Marty
 
Well its hard to get old and stay relevant to whats happening around you.U2 are the undisputed champions in this dept.Maybe things like this keeps me being a fan, rather than melodies and hooks
 
I dunno...if that's true then why was there the infamous "silence" on FM2 radio when they supposabely played ES? And why was Island reportedly pissed of at the song leaking out?

Surely they talk this kind of thing over with the record company... :confused:
 
U2girl said:
I dunno...if that's true then why was there the infamous "silence" on FM2 radio when they supposabely played ES? And why was Island reportedly pissed of at the song leaking out?

Surely they talk this kind of thing over with the record company... :confused:
I'd say it's because Bono/U2 may not really care what the record company thinks. But that's just a theory.
 
david said:
must... refrain... from.. making... fun.. of.. the.. subject... line...

LOL!


I don't know that they plan them per se. But they obviously expect them and don't do too much about them.
 
If the band WANTED to get snippets or "leaks" out into the public, why would they pretend it was 'leaked'? Why not just post in on their website? Give it to a DJ or two, and say "here you go, a snippet/demo of our next song"

What purpose would it serve, to pretend they didn't really want it to get out?
 
I can't speak for pre-ATYCLB...but that album was most certainly not intentionally leaked.

As for Electrical Storm: Paul McGuiness "flipped his lid" when he heard it was leaked--that is, until Bono admitted it was by him :) That should indicate something.

These conspiracy theories are always a bit foolish. U2 are the biggest band in the world, if not in size then in media coverage and visibility. It shouldn't be surprising in the least that many of their official releases are upstaged by less-than-official ones.
 
I'll keep this brief...
While the 30sec clips of Discotheque and Wakeup Deadman were from a video promo... EPK (electronic promo kit), the full version of Discotheque was leaked.... to a DJ, which at the time, I knew through a friend.... and is how Interference.com leaked the first full version of Discotheque (in late december 1996). This version, by the way, was different from any version later released on cd or otherwise.

The track hit Interference.com and 2 major US radio stations the same day, later to be picked up and played by stations worldwide. This ended up moving up the official radio date by quite some time. The single was the first of its kind to be leaked on the Internet, and during the bands Kmart press conference they were asked 'So how does it feel to be the first band bulgarlared on the Internet?'. The event got A LOT of media attention, tv, radio, magazines, etc... and later Paul McGuinness was later quoted as saying something to the effect of, 'this has been the best free press a band has ever gotten, we couldn't have planned it this well'.

Oh.. and the DJ... was a friend of Bono's, the cdr was given to him as an early Christmans gift.

U2 likes to follow patterns that work... does any of this sound vaguely familiar? :)

Joel
 
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