Universal Australia’s giant FUBAR

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So if you were up early. Or late. Or just… up, you may have been awake for the brief window of time during which getmusic.com.au, which is Universal Australia’s official download platform (!), accidentally sold mp3 downloads of all of the songs on U2’s No Line on the Horizon, more than a week before its official release. Not just for Australian customers… this international cat used Paypal to legally get her paws on the album.

Brief review? Lovin’ it.

According to atu2.com it wasn’t even the first leak. It’s just that nobody noticed the first one. For a few days, the songs were available individually on Napster Mobile. Apparently, not a whole lot of people use that – legal – service.

We hope you got lucky too. Let us know what you think of the album.

Nice: U2 fans are pleading with the web shop not to fire the guy that caused the leak. (Update: fans’ comments have been removed from the site!)

Do you hear what I hear?

As in years past we at U2log.com are excited to keep our tradition alive by bringing you some goodies to keep you company through the holiday season and into the new year.

This year we are pleased to share with you some rare gems from our vinyl vault. But before we open the vault we would like to present you with the following message.

It was 20 years ago today:

  • Vicki Iovine introduces A Very Special Christmas, taken from a US cassette promo.
  • An edited version of Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), taken from that same promo.

From the vinyl vault:

  • I Will Follow (Special Edited DJ Version), from a UK 7″ promo.
  • An edited version of Fire, from a UK 7″ promo.
  • An edited version of Gloria, from a UK 7″ promo.
  • An insanely rare edited version of Gloria, from an Argentine 7″ promo.

These downloads will be available for a limited time only. A big thank you goes out to our friend Rajiv Udani for providing some of these rarities!

Merry Christmas!

U2, The Beatles and the iPod

SwitchBlog (Inspired by Apple’s Switch Campaign) mentions U2 in their post ‘Social Currency and the iPod‘ which talks about Apple’s strategy concerning the iPod, digital downloads, DRM and the ‘godlike genius’ of Steve Jobs:

“Rumors have been floated about a Madonna iPod, and others, but without a Beatles iPod as the precedent, it would have been premature. The U2 iPod was an exception. It was a foot-in-the-door for Apple and an opportunity for U2 to welcome the Beatles into the future of music distribution. U2 is the only band with a long enough history and enough current relevance to pull this off.”

Read the full story
… and a follow up post: The U2 iPod and Its Relationship to the Beatles Deal.