Coldplay album flying off shelves after UK release Thursday

Billboard reported early Friday that English band Coldplay's fourth album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, is set to see nearly 300,000 copies sold before the weekend is over after being released in the UK on Thursday. The trade magazine reports as well that in the first day of sales, 125,000 copies were sold, making the album well on its way to passing by the band's last album, X&Y, which sold 464,000 copies in the UK during the first week it was released.

Official UK Charts Company, the chart compiler in the UK reported to Billboard as well that the album's sales of 125,000 easily "outsells the rest of the top five biggest selling albums, which have benefited from a full week on sale." In the UK, Coldplay already holds the record for second best first-week seller in chart history with X&Y from three years ago. The number one spot is held by Oasis with 695,000 copies sold for 1997's Be Here Now.

These early sales figures must be a nice boost for the band's label, privately held EMI Group. In recent weeks, rumors and critics of the company and its current owners, the private equity firm Terra Firma, have revealed that Viva la Vida is an album that the label is hinging its summer and possibly its year-round sales on.

The album's success was never in doubt by many onlookers, but with EMI's troubles growing after layoffs and management shuffling, its success will be a great relief. Unfortunately, marketing and advertising for the album has seen more of a push from the band on its own website, News Corporation's (NYSE: NWS) MySpace, and through a television commercial for Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes Store, where a pre-order has been offered with bonus tracks.

Viva la Vida will be released by EMI's Capitol Records in the United States on June 17.