Free Coldplay track sees over 2 million downloads

Privately held EMI Group reported to Billboard this week that the free track offered by Coldplay last week, "Violet Hill," was downloaded more than 2 million times. The song was made available from the updated Coldplay website on April 29 for one week before being released "commercially" in digital stores Tuesday, and it remains at Coldplay.com as a stream.

EMI had previously reported that the song was downloaded more than 600,000 times in the first 24 hours it was available. More impressively, EMI also told Billboard that the 2 million mark "is four times that of the combined sales of the Official U.K. Charts Co.'s entire Top 40 chart last week." "Violet Hill" will only be released as a physical single, a 45-rpm vinyl record, via this week's copy of British music newspaper NME. Coldplay's new album, Vida la Vida or Death and All His Friends, is released in the UK on June 12 and in the United States on June 17.

If the free availability and massive download of this one track is any indication, EMI is fully embracing digital downloads. More importantly, and coincidentally, EMI has also picked up on the platform former artist Radiohead used last October to market and distribute their seventh album, In Rainbows. Although the new Coldplay album will not be released in a similar manner, this method of distribution indicates how promising free music is to marketing new albums. At the end of the day, I can only hope that more free music will be this exciting.