Radiohead’s pioneering “In Rainbows” album giveaway “backfired”, according to U2’s manager.

Paul McGuiness has revealed that his Irish rock charges are nearing completion on their new record, which will come out in the autumn.

However, he says the band have absolutely no plan to break with tradition and will make it available in shops on CD.

Suggesting last October’s Radiohead initiative “to some extent backfired”, McGuinness claimed “60 to 70 per” cent of fans “stole it”.

Speaking about U2’s currently untitled follow-up to 2004’s “How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb”, he said they had no plans to change.

“There will be events around the release of the album but for U2 physical sales are still an enormous part of our business and we still sell a lot of actual CDs.

“We will obviously work with whatever technology is available to make the release of the new record as interesting as possible”, McGuinness told the BBC.

-Contact Music

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