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Radiohead’s aptly named Hail to the Thief was also posted online two months before its official release date.

EMI’s Virgin Records expects A Bigger Bang to be a modest hit, although it is not expected to top the charts. With 16 new tracks, it is the band’s longest album since the 1972 classic Exile on Main Street. Most of those who have heard it consider the new album to be the best Rolling Stones work in decades, although opinions are mixed.

Among the tracks available for download were the single Streets Of Love as well as Sweet Neo Con, in which the band lambasts the the American neo-conservative movement with lyrics such as “You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite”.

THE LEAKY NET

June 2005: Fans began freely downloading the 12 tracks from Coldplay’s third album X&Y within minutes of it going on websites

3 May 2005: Internet pirates release leaked songs from The White Stripes’ album Get Behind Me, Satan

3 April 2005: Polish police arrest a man said to have accessed a pre-release video of Depeche Mode’s single Precious and made it available for download

April 2005: Pirate copies of Oasis’s album Don’t Believe the Truth are on eBay a month before its official launch

April 2005: Mel C’s comeback album Beautiful Intentions leaks on the internet a month before its official release

Nov 2004: U2’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and Eminem’s Encore on internet file-swapping sites weeks before release

February 2004: Janet Jackson releases Just a Little While as unintended first single of the album Damita Joe because of an internet leak

April 2003: Radiohead’s aptly named Hail to the Thief is leaked online two months before its official release date

December 1999: Grammy rapper Jay-Z, the record executive known as Shawn Carter, stabbed a man he thought had distributed leaked copies of a new album. He pleaded guilty and was put on probation

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