The album leak was a publicity stunt

[pittTodd]

Think about it....

Put it out early make a big deal that you are all pissed but somehow every radio station in the country is playing it all day. This was a setup....

Every song is good enough for radio...so why not have every station in the country play it all day 2 weeks before it comes out??

For all of you who have been holding out...suckers! U2 set this up!

 

[Mark Freedman]

pittTodd, you are on drugs, man

Of course, you may be right.

 

[pittTodd]

hey ...


drugs are cool

 

[Mark Freedman]

And you're not sharing with the rest of us

 

[Mark Freedman]

Did this many radio stations play the full album last time? Or for anyone else?

This album should be HUGE. ANd if this is a publicity stunt, it IS genius.

 

[pittTodd]

I have never heard an album played on the air like this...or at all for that matter

 

[BrownEyedBoy]

Think about it....

Put it out early make a big deal that you are all pissed but somehow every radio station in the country is playing it all day. This was a setup....

Every song is good enough for radio...so why not have every station in the country play it all day 2 weeks before it comes out??

For all of you who have been holding out...suckers! U2 set this up!

...so? We still got new U2 music. I'm not complaining.

 

[pittTodd]

im not either! its brilliant!

 

[Canadiens1131]

If it was a stunt, effing brilliant. This thing is going to be huge. MTV.com, VH!.com are playing it soon, rock stations all over having 12-hour HTDAAB-a-thons. perfect

 

[Atomic Monkey]

That would really be ingenius...the album was probably gonna leak anyways. Why not do it yourselves and make plans ahead of time?

 

[mikal]

Bono once said "we're going to eat the monster before it eats us!"

 

[rjhbonovox]

I thought that too, I have never ever seen a U2 album plugged like this in my life. You wouldn't believe the contrast to how they publicised Achtung Baby, there was no sight of the band on Radio interviews, top of the pops etc or anything when it first came out, the first interview on Radio 1 I remember them giving was in February 1992 which was nearly 4 months after the album had come out.

I think the whole thing when the CD went missing in the summer was also a publicity stunt as well to get them in the papers. Great ideas there coming up with, I wonder whats next?

 

[Axver]

Great ideas there coming up with, I wonder whats next?

Advertising in the sky.

 

[JOFO]

Bono will get a job at a mcdonalds drive thru and hand out promo copies of the CD.

 

[neutral]

It wasn't a publicity stunt. Well anything's possible but I really don't think so. The name of the warez group that's responsible for the leak is in the original file names. There's a little note from them in the usenet postings of the leaked album......


I looked on usenet, here's some other stuff they've leaked this year.


Presidents of the United States - Love Everybody
New Edition - One Love
Sparta-Porcelain
Shinedown - Leave A Whisper
Avant - Private Room
youngb gunz - tough luv
Eminem - Encore
Powerman 5000 - The Good The Bad And The Ugly
The Verve - This Is Music The Singles
Destiny's Child - Destiny Fulfilled
Kanye - West College Dropout
Fear Factory - Soul of a New Machine Remaster
Bizzy Bone - Alpha & Omega
New Edition - Hits Remastered

 

[U2dork]

Just curious...
How many of those are Interscope/Universal artists?

 

[dabiggestu2fan]

I believe it was edge 102 when POP was released I remembered they played the whole album but they would play the first song then some other non u2 songs then play the second and again play non u2 songs and would play the third song and so on. They probably do that often!

 

[neutral]

Just curious...
How many of those are Interscope/Universal artists?

good question, I'll check


okay....just 4 or 5 of them.

 

[Reggie Thee Dog]

I'm of the belief this was the plan to be put in action if the album leaked early. I mean saturating radio, the internet and T.V. with U2 is brilliant. How much better publicity can they get?

I listened to the 91X (San Diego) stream of the album and I can tell you that people were flipping out and so excited to hear the station play the whole album. I couldn't believe the positive reactions, it bodes well my friends for this album.

P.S. Hearing Crumbs and Yahweh all the way through today made me release these songs are going to be hot!!

 

[teebee]

it's not genius. it's common sense.

when you're as big as U2, you know everyone at least is going to give the album one listen. even indie fans, even radiohead fans, are going to listen to it once. so why not increase the number of people hearing it as much as possible?

methinks this is where the $17 million is going.

 

[Reggie Thee Dog]

it's not genius. it's common sense.
methinks this is where the $17 million is going.

Ah Ha!!

 

[starsgoblue]

I'm of the belief this was the plan to be put in action if the album leaked early. I mean saturating radio, the internet and T.V. with U2 is brilliant. How much better publicity can they get?

There's a new article on Yahoo! about how this is how the band decided to handle the leak by allowing stations to play the full album and on MTV/VH1.

Now, whether or not it was U2 themselves who did the actual leaking....I don't know.

 

[Lisa71]

I was just thinking tonight on my drive home from work that I wonder if records, as we know them, won't exsist anymore. I mean, we watch videos and they are free on Mtv or Vh1 and they are marketing tools, so with the way the internet is going it makes me wonder if records will one day be marketing tools for concerts and merchandising. (I remember Larry saying back during ZooTv that they made more money from the sell of T-shirts etc then they did on the shows themselves) So, I just wonder if the record companies and artists can't control the internet and the leaks, will they in the future make new records just to promote there merchandise and concerts?

 

[macphisto777]

Think about it....

Put it out early make a big deal that you are all pissed but somehow every radio station in the country is playing it all day. This was a setup....

Every song is good enough for radio...so why not have every station in the country play it all day 2 weeks before it comes out??

For all of you who have been holding out...suckers! U2 set this up!

Wisdom does not beseech thee!

 

[macphisto777]

I was just thinking tonight on my drive home from work that I wonder if records, as we know them, won't exsist anymore. I mean, we watch videos and they are free on Mtv or Vh1 and they are marketing tools, so with the way the internet is going it makes me wonder if records will one day be marketing tools for concerts and merchandising. (I remember Larry saying back during ZooTv that they made more money from the sell of T-shirts etc then they did on the shows themselves) So, I just wonder if the record companies and artists can't control the internet and the leaks, will they in the future make new records just to promote there merchandise and concerts?

An amazing thought!

 

[macphisto777]

Bono will get a job at a mcdonalds drive thru and hand out promo copies of the CD.

 

[macphisto777]

It wasn't a publicity stunt. Well anything's possible but I really don't think so. The name of the warez group that's responsible for the leak is in the original file names. There's a little note from them in the usenet postings of the leaked album......


I looked on usenet, here's some other stuff they've leaked this year.


Presidents of the United States - Love Everybody
New Edition - One Love
Sparta-Porcelain
Shinedown - Leave A Whisper
Avant - Private Room
youngb gunz - tough luv
Eminem - Encore
Powerman 5000 - The Good The Bad And The Ugly
The Verve - This Is Music The Singles
Destiny's Child - Destiny Fulfilled
Kanye - West College Dropout
Fear Factory - Soul of a New Machine Remaster
Bizzy Bone - Alpha & Omega
New Edition - Hits Remastered

Is it possible that U2's people elicited the warez group?

 

[Earnie Shavers]

I was just thinking tonight on my drive home from work that I wonder if records, as we know them, won't exsist anymore. I mean, we watch videos and they are free on Mtv or Vh1 and they are marketing tools, so with the way the internet is going it makes me wonder if records will one day be marketing tools for concerts and merchandising. (I remember Larry saying back during ZooTv that they made more money from the sell of T-shirts etc then they did on the shows themselves) So, I just wonder if the record companies and artists can't control the internet and the leaks, will they in the future make new records just to promote there merchandise and concerts?

You're correct. The music won't just be a marketing tool, but certainly touring is the main source of income now. Give it 10 years and there'll be very few mega-millionaire artists from music sales alone. Touring and licensing is where it's at.

 

[Earnie Shavers]

Oh, and what I actually meant to say in this topic was "Yes" - I do believe all of the leaks were a publicity stunt. U2 have forever excelled at the publicity game. Leaks are a reality now, whether it's a matter of days or weeks before an album is due to be released. Coming to realise that it's going to happen anyway, so may as well control it and spin it in your favour is a great move. Believe it or not, leaks and illegal downloading has a far, far smaller negative effect on sales then the 'Big 5' would have you believe.... I think this U2 leak will actually have a big impact on sales, but in the other direction...

 

[U2girl]

Yes, more and more tours are becoming a huge way of promoting the album, as album sales aren't what they used to be. Add the whole Itunes/downloading thing and there's the future IMO.

As for the question, I doubt it. Not with all the safety precations we heard about, and not with the whole case of that missing CD.

We still don't know what PM thinks of the radio airplay though...it is possible they talked to various stations and allowed it but we don't know for sure. Unless Interscope went and did this behind PM's and U2's back?