Coldplay's newest single, Speed of Sound, looks set to be the most downloaded track in iTunes history, according to EMI Music.

The track, released on the iTunes Music Store last week, currently ranks at the top of the chart in every international market, writes Digital Music News.

The single is currently only available in digital format. According to Digital Music News the decision to release the track online rather than as a CD-single "confused" EMI Music UK & Ireland chairman Tony Wadsworth, however, he is happy to have a product in the market alongside radio play, noting that "fans want to be able to buy the music they hear on the radio instantly, and the beauty of digital is that we can now deliver that".Digital Music News opines that it may become standard practice to position a paid download alongside a radio premier, since most music fans are now accustomed to instant gratification. "Many labels have released to radio prior to having any product available on the market, often leading consumers to grab free downloads on P2P services," the report suggests.

Speed of Sound is the first release from Coldplay's third album, 'X + Y'. The album is set for release on June 6.

Chris Martin says he is paranoid his singing voice could vanish at any moment.

He was so keen build on the momentum of Coldplay's success that the band headed straight back into the studio to record their third album X&Y within a week of their tour ending.

Martin says: "I just think life is so short and this opportunity might end at any point. Even today I'm terrified. "Oh shit, what if I can't sing anymore, ever? What if we roll over 200 metres ahead? You've got to grab it while it's happening, work harder than anyone else."

JAM! is giving you the chance to see what could be one of the hottest shows of the year - Coldplay at the Kool Haus in Toronto on May 11.

Tickets for this small, intimate gig sold out in a matter of seconds, but Canoe have their hands on a pair -- and are itching to put them in YOUR hands. The show is in advance of their highly-anticipated new album, "X&Y," which hits Canadian stores on June 7.

You will need a CanoeID in order to enter this contest. Click here to register and enter.

There are lots of new pictures of Coldplay on Top Of The Pops, you can see all the details here

Chris Martin backtracked on his promise to "reinvent the wheel" with Coldplay's next album when he realised his band would be foolish to dramatically alter their winning songwriting style.

Following Coldplay's headline performance at the 2003 V Festival in England, singer Martin pledged to bury their "soft rock" sound and work on an album of songs which would cement their status as pioneers of music.

However, with the impending release of their long-awaited third LP X&Y, Martin has been forced to explain why he changed his mind.

He says, "I realised that you can only really reinvent your own wheel and the main thing to me was that our wheel was our songs. We've written a bunch of songs now that are pushing us further than we've ever been before and so in terms of our point of view we have done it. In terms of the wider world, we haven't worked out how to make a new instrument or a new time signature but it's not all about bleeps and squeaks."

Source: ContactMusic

Coldplay will be playing at the Kool Haus in Toronto on May 11th, and tickets go on sale tomorrow for $30, and to keep evil scalpers at bay you can only buy 2 tickets.

The gig is part of a mini-promotional tour to push the band's new CD, X&Y, which is due out on June 7th. The first single from the CD, "Speed of Sound", has already been a huge hit, reaching #1 on the iTunes Music Store after only being available for one day. According to a press release from EMI Music Canada the song also has been the most-added song overall in Canada.

Head over to Ticketmaster.ca tomorrow at 10:00 am to buy your tickets. No doubt the band will return to Toronto for a bigger show, but this will be a rare chance to see them up close and personal.

More on this here

Capital Records announced today that "Speed of Sound," the first single from Coldplay's forthcoming "X&Y," is No. 1 on all of Apple's iTunes Music Stores worldwide one short day after its release.

"Speed of Sound" achieved the No. 1 position on all 15 stores. The iTunes Music Store is in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. "'Speed of Sound's' No. 1 iTunes Music Store debut confirms that the worldwide anticipation for new Coldplay music is undeniable," said Andrew Slater, Capitol Records' President & CEO. "As great as expectations are for this release, excitement will be met with a career-defining album from Coldplay."

"Coldplay's 'Speed of Sound' has been a hit with music fans topping iTunes charts today in every country, only a day after its release," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of Applications. "With iTunes' extensive reach, there's no faster way to bring a pre-release track like this to fans around the world."

"Speed of Sound" went to radio on Monday; the companion video for the single will be directed by Mark Romanek. Coldplay will headline the first day of the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, CA on Saturday, April 30th. Following the release of "X&Y," Coldplay will embark on their biggest world tour yet, beginning with dates in Europe, the UK and Ireland. Plans are in the works for a 40-city North American summer tour.

Since forming in London in 1998, Coldplay -- comprised of Guy Berryman (bass), Jonny Buckland (lead guitar), Will Champion (drums) and Chris Martin (vocals, guitar, keyboards) -- has won four Grammy awards, including the prestigious Record of the Year award for "Clocks." The band's two previous releases, "Parachutes" (2000) and "A Rush of Blood to the Head" (2002), have sold a combined 20 million copies worldwide.

The past couple of weeks have seen brand new releases from eagerly antcipated new albums from Oasis, The White Stripes, The Foo Fighters and last but not least Coldplay.

XFM are putting them all in the ring and its up to you to decide which will be left standing at the end. Vote for Coldplay as the best single and also potentially the best live act this summer here

Chris Martin risked serious injury on stage in London last night – in an attempt to give a hug to Noel Gallagher. [thanks Hicksy & Ratty]

The band played a secret show at the Round Chapel in Hackney, East London, which was being recorded for a future broadcast on MTV in June.

During 'In My Place' Martin spotted Gallagher on the balcony. He climbed up onto the main speaker stack and then pulled himself onto the balcony. Once up there he found Noel and gave him a massive hug.

However, Martin then found himself stranded on the balcony, fifteen feet from where the rest of the band were attempting to continue the song without him. After standing on the edge, Martin then jumped back onto the stage below. Earlier in the night Chris Martin had covered 'Lyla' as a tribute to his hero.

The show was the band's only confirmed UK date prior to their headline appearance at this summer’s Glastonbury festival.

The setlist ran:

Square One

Politik

God Put A Smile On Your Face

Speed Of Sound

Warning Sign

X&Y

Yellow

Low

The Scientist

Till Kingdom Come

Clocks

What If

In My Place

Fix You

The band's new single 'Speed Of Sound' has made available from today (April 20) as an official download from the iTunes Music Store. The release date proper is May 23.

You can read the Billboard's review of the new album X&Y here

[thanks datahomi]

Mouthy Mancunian Liam Gallagher finds the sensitivity of Chris Martin's songwriting too much for his heart strings - admitting he'd surely slit his wrists if he listened to Coldplay. Or maybe it's just because he can't stand them; it's a tricky one.

Anyway, after rocking up last week to Jean Christophe Novelli's Hell's Kitchen for his free eats (and dutifully puking it straight back up again) the simian Oasis frontman was asked if he'd be joining his brother Noel at Coldplay's secret MTV gig on Wednesday.

To which he rolled back his sleeves and replied in a typically erudite manner, "Do you see razor blade marks? That's what you'd see if I'd been to see them."

Source: Gigwise

[thanks mimi]

Coldplay's Chris Martin and a number of other musicians are taking part in the 'Rock The Vote' campaign that aims to get people out and voting in the forthcoming general election.

Martin was reported as saying in today’s Sun: "I think that by voting you show you care. It’s when politicians don’t think we care that they start doing the craziest things."The American election last year saw numerous artists using their voices to encourage people to vote. Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, The Dixie Chicks, REM and James Taylor led the 'Vote For Change' tour that attempted to "derail the right-wing Republican agenda by defeating George W. Bush."

It seems that we could be looking at similar outpouring of political opinions on this side of the pond.

Beverley Knight told the Sun readers: "What ever you do get out and vote. You've got to do what’s right by exercising what people have fought for."

Source: Gigwise

I say no along with those who know Chris's humour, however here is the cover...

NME is the biggest-selling weekly music magazine in Britain. Featuring must-read news, the UK’s most comprehensive gig guide, definitive reviews and exclusive interviews with the hottest bands around, it’s the Bible of every young music fan.

The Strokes, The Libertines, The Smiths and the Sex Pistols were all introduced to the world via the pages of NME, while in recent months we’ve gone on the road with Green Day, celebrated Christmas with U2 and thrown the NME Awards, attended by the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Paul McCartney and Oasis

NME comes out every Wednesday, is priced a mere £1.90 and is available in all good newsagents.

THIS WEEK:

The World’s Greatest Music Weekly On Sale Now!

The return of COLDPLAY – world exclusive interview!

Radiohead secret gig – picture special

The new White Stripes album track-by-track

Plus!

Dominic Masters for Prime Minister? The results of NME’s election poll are in

Alex Kapranos’ inside story on the making of new Franz Ferdinand album

Dogging, sodomy and maiming: the frontline report from the two-day Morrissey seminar

Five reasons why CBGBs can’t die

Interpol’s exclusive tour diary and photo album

New Nine Inch Nails and Hot Hot Heat albums put through the grinder

Win a VIP trip to London to meet The Bravery

Coldplay have done several new radio interviews over the past 24 hours, including Radio 1, Virgin Radio and XFM. You can listen to all of them in order here

[thanks Jette]

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin has a guaranteed method of ensuring the British band's forthcoming third album is a hit - killing himself. [thanks mimi]

Chris Martin, who is married to Gwyneth Paltrow and has a baby daughter, Apple - has no intention of committing suicide but admits he'd at least know X&Y would sell millions of copies.

Martin says, "I think the best thing for everyone would be if I died. It's the only way to save this album. It would add that necessary amount of tragedy.

"(But) I wouldn't do that because I have a daughter. But commercially it would be a great idea to blow my head off."

Source: ContactMusic

LONDON (Reuters) - British group Coldplay, whose much delayed album is finally hitting the airwaves, could be the band that makes or breaks music giant EMI.

"This is the high stakes album of the year for EMI," said Numis Securities analyst Paul Richards of the world's third largest music group.

EMI Group shares fell 16 percent in February after it blamed delays in releasing key albums for lower than expected profits.So a great deal is riding on the success of "X&Y," the follow-up to Coldplay's breakthrough second album "Rush of Blood to the Head" which sold more than 10 million copies.

"All eyes will be on the performance of this new album," Richards said. "They are certainly flavor of the month."

"Speed of Sound," the first single from the new album, was played on BBC Radio Monday, Coldplay are staging an MTV live invite-only gig in London Tuesday, and yet the album is still not being released until June 6.

Coldplay's perfectionist lead singer Chris Martin, who is married to Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow, admits the pressure of expectation is getting to him.

Fears of the "Tall Poppy Syndrome" -- critics cutting them down after acclaiming the last album -- abound.

"When you're playing new songs, you tread a fine line between arrogance and, well, fear. It's a line we tread quite badly," he confessed at a U.S. charity concert in Los Angeles last month.

Martin called the making of Coldplay's third album "one of the most difficult experiences of my life."

"Lighten Up" is the message from the music industry to Coldplay, which scrapped many of the songs for the new album last year and went back to the studio, much to the chagrin of record executives.

Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland from Coldplay came into Radio 1 last night (Monday) to give Steve Lamacq the first play of their single.

The guys seemed very embarrassed about the compliments from listeners after the single was played and joked they wanted to remix it again. They admit they're very shy about talking about their new album 'X&Y' but Chris talked about how they've turned up Jonny's guitars to show off what a great musician he is.

Despite the nerves about the album they can't wait to head off on tour and play Glastonbury and are loving life at the moment. "We're living our dream lives, we're entertained all the time. I spoke to Noel Gallagher from the band Oasis. When you speak to someone who was around when you were 14 and now they're speaking to you as contemporaries, you have to hit yourself on the head and remind yourself that your dreams have come true. It's amazing. We're still excited about it. Every part of what we do is exciting and incredible."

As well as releasing a new album, the band are also heading off on tour soon. They chose their own support bands for the dates - Interpol is one of them - Chris explained why:

"They're disarmingly handsome, and what we thought we needed to open for Coldplay was a disarmingly handsome band. The Strokes weren't available and nor were Kings of Leon or Girls Aloud, so Interpol it was."

Source: Radio1

Just thought I'd let you guys know that vh1.com has posted an article on their first impressions of hearing songs from Coldplay's new album X&Y.

"Fan and industry expectations for X&Y are almost impossibly high (it'll have to both resonate longer and sell more copies than 2003's globe-uniting A Rush of Blood to the Head to be considered a success). And now that Martin is the band's breakout — actually probably only — star, it's pretty safe to say that this is the first record where his lyrics will be analyzed with a fine-toothed comb. And so, with all that in mind, and with the gaze of millions of eyes upon them, how would Coldplay respond?

By making X&Y a complex, shimmering, airy, dark, near-ambient, stadium-rocker of an album that manages to sound (in sections) like Brian Eno, the Beatles, Grandaddy, Mercury Rev and Basil Poledouris' score to "Conan the Barbarian" — but also like every Coldplay album ever released. Which is no easy feat."

[thanks Anonymous]

For more on this article visit the link below:

http://www.vh1.com/news/articles/1500276/20050415/coldplay.jhtml?headlines=true

Speed Of Sound will have it's first play on UK when Chris and Jonny are on Lamacq Live on Monday the 18th of April on Radio 1 from 9pm.

Chris & Jonny will be hand delivering the new Coldplay single, Speed Of Sound to Steve Lamacq during the show.

The track will get it's first airplay here from 9pm. To listen online click here

Don't worry, they're not in pieces yet. Coldplay will feature in next month's Blender magazine, which will go on sale from 24th May.

Coldplay fans have succeeded in cracking the code featured on the bands new cover art. Well done Owen!

The band astounded fans last week when they launched the artwork for the eagerly awaited new album 'X&Y', featuring a series of cryptic colour-coded blocks. Now it has been discovered that the actual blocks are graphical representations loosely based on a binary code known as 'Baudot', which generates a base5 binary representations for each letter or character in the western alphabet.

The 'baudot' code has been used extensively in telegraph systems. It is a five bit code invented by the Frenchman Emile Baudot in 1870. Using five bits allowed 32 different characters. To accomodate all the letters of the alphabet and numerals, two of the 32 combinations were used to select alternate character sets.One mathematically clued-up fan told Stereoboard.com: "Actually it doesn't matter about the colours, they are only there for aesthetics.

"The importance to the code is actually whether the coloured block is there or not, so is the graphic a zero or a one? For example on the album artwork the letter X is 10111 and Y is 10101 and the symbol for & has to be firstly activated with a sort of SHIFT character, which is 11011. So the & symbol is actually 11011 01011. All pretty confusing, but pretty much explanative when you can see the pattern that is present."

What is rather strange though is that the album title that is represented by this code actually depicts 'X-Y' based on the General version of Baudot's code (there was no & in the original version) and 'X9Y' in the new amended versions of the code. To depict the album cover correctly the grey/white blocks are missing on the 3rd line of the album artwork.

Source: Stereoboard.com

As Coldplay embark on the next stage of their march towards global domination, Neil McCormick argues that they represent the latest in a long tradition of British groups who, when it comes to stadium rock, have got the Americans licked

It was announced this week that Coldplay are to take the coveted Saturday night headline spot at this year's Glastonbury festival on June 25, the scene of their widely acknowledged crowd-swaying triumph in 2000. Earlier the same month, on June 6, Coldplay will release their third album, X&Y. The cover artwork is currently being unveiled in a street poster campaign a segment at a time. A single, Speed of Sound, will be played for the first time by radio stations on Monday.

There is enormous anticipation within the music business about Coldplay's return to the fray. Their 2002 album, A Rush of Blood to the Head, had worldwide sales of 9.8 million, but their record company, Parlophone, predicts that the new album will beat that. There is a sense that Coldplay are poised on the edge of greatness, with the chance to become the first genuine rock superstars of the 21st century, capable of filling stadiums around the world. And what is more, they are British.I say this not out of some misguided patriotism, but because their Britishness matters. American pop culture may dominate the worldwide media, but when it comes to truly universal rock music, British bands are still in a league of their own, superior to their American counterparts in almost every respect.

This thought occurred to me during a concert by Velvet Revolver, a high-energy, perpetually riffing outfit whose album, Contraband, last year became the fastest-selling debut ever in the US. And it is not bad, if you like your music fast, loud and shallow. Their lead guitarist, Slash, is already something of a rock legend, formerly of American stadium rockers Guns N' Roses, a late '80s glam-punk band of screeching hysteria and frenzied soloing who, in retrospect, look like the last gasp of dinosaur bombast before grunge and Britpop brought rock back down to earth. On stage at the mid-sized Hammersmith Apollo in west London (Velvet Revolver not being nearly as popular on this side of the Atlantic), Slash dedicated a song to "the greatest American rock group of all time". The band he had in mind were… Aerosmith.

Is that really the best America can do? Aerosmith's claim to such a title is fairly compelling. They are America's longest-running rock soap opera, having played together for 35 years, notched up hits across four decades, survived drugs and debauchery on a gargantuan scale and sold tens of millions of records in the process. They have a great frontman in Steve Tyler, a gifted lead guitarist in Joe Perry, they write catchy songs and they have all the licks and all the right moves… but no art, and precious little heart. Aerosmith are essentially a showband, light entertainment with heavy guitars. They are often compared to the Rolling Stones but their debt to Britain's own longest-running rock opera is all too evident, and all too superficial. Where is their Sympathy for the Devil? Where is their Paint It, Black? Aerosmith's most well-known global hit is the bubblegum pop-rock of Walk This Way, in a version popularised by rappers Run-DMC.

If we are talking greatness, surely we should be searching for something richer and more vital than that? When we look at the great universal British groups, the ones whose music resonates in every corner of the globe, they have soul, spirit and art in abundance. The Stones, the Who, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, U2 (not strictly British, but an Irish band signed to a British record company with two members born in the UK) and, more recently, Oasis and Radiohead. These are bands whose success was built on musical principles of passion and substance. What is the best America can offer? Fast guitar licks, big light shows, tight trousers and blow-dried hair.

The history of rock can be viewed as a kind of cultural interplay between the US and the UK, with fantastic bands from both sides of the pond influencing and interacting with one another, often with an impact far outreaching their sales. But I don't wish to debate the relative merits of groups such as the Byrds, the Doors, the Velvet Underground, the Ramones, Talking Heads, Faith No More and Nine Inch Nails (from the US) and the Kinks, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen, the Smiths and Blur (from the UK). I love and admire them all. But I want to address something more wide-reaching than what most groups - no matter how distinctive and inspirational - have to offer. I am talking about universality, striking a chord that reverberates around the planet, singing the songs that make the whole world sing along, selling in multi-millions over an extended period of time. I am talking, essentially, about stadium rock.

There are some who consider the term stadium rock abusive - shameless populism with all the artistic compromises that implies. Rock is undoubtedly at its best when it has an edge - but on those occasions when bands reach the point of mass appeal while retaining musical integrity, I think we witness something truly extraordinary unfold, music that speaks to something deep within its audience, invoking a spirit of communal experience almost primeval in its power. Sometimes bigger really is better, because the intensity of the experience, rather than being diluted, is magnified.

"If you invite 60,000 people to a stadium, you had better do something that people can not only hear but can also see, and that kind of scale of ambition to produce big music in a big live context is not easy," says U2's manager, Paul McGuinness. With the new and creatively revamped Wembley Stadium due to open next year, giving Britain its own state-of-the-art stadium venue, there is some thought being given to the question of which acts have the pulling power to perform there. "You have to have the music, you have to have the demand, and you have to be innovative and creative about the physical circumstances of your performance," says McGuinness. "Right now, probably only Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones and U2 can do it. It's a very short list."

"There have probably been not more than 20 real big stadium acts in rock history, which is not a lot," says Harvey Goldsmith, the legendary British concert promoter. "All the artists that break through to that level have a magic about them that is hard to describe. There are two things they need: anthemic songs and incredible stage presence. The edge of the stage is a huge barrier. In any venue, no matter what size, you've got to be able to hit the guys at the back. If you don't get to them, it's not working. To do that in a space that holds 50,000 to 70,000 people takes something really special."

Goldsmith cites the Stones, Pink Floyd, the Who and Queen as the greatest stadium bands ever. "Queen had all the anthems, they had production values, and Freddie Mercury had soul, too, which is something that's often overlooked. It's a two-way process, playing live, the audience reacting to the band and the band on stage reacting to the audience, and somehow he always managed to keep that interplay going."

We are not talking about solo artists here, which I regard as a special case. In solo terms, the US may be ahead of the UK. They can boast Elvis, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen as undisputable universal greats. We have Paul, Elton and Rod. I am restricting myself to the case of the rock band, the unique chemistry conjured by a group of individuals playing guitars, bass and drums. And, to my mind, the greatest rock bands of all time are British.

The Beatles were the first stadium band, although their tiny amplifiers (designed for clubs) could not compete with the volume of screams at Shea Stadium in 1965. The Stones, the Who, Pink Floyd and Genesis all took it further, finding a way to use those vast spaces. "The British bands had great production values, they brought a lot of ideas from the art world and theatre into their shows," says Goldsmith. "In the early days, the big American bands just went out and played. They came up as big draws on the live circuit in America and saw stadiums as an extension of that. They picked up on the production thing later and went to town on it, which is where Kiss come in."

Kiss: a bunch of men in lurid make-up sticking their tongues out and playing heavy metal power-pop with stupid lyrics. They were the biggest-selling American rock band of the mid-'70s. In the UK, we had Led Zeppelin, a phenomenal blues and folk-based hard rock outfit whose records still resonate today. "When you become part of the mass consciousness, your currency changes - whatever your original intentions were," says former Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant. "I think we are now considered some stalwart of British rock, which doesn't take into account the variety and colours created by that group. Zeppelin were never a middle of the road band, we were really quite fearsome, but we took the imagination of a lot of people with us. We were always striking out for higher ground and it was always based on musical integrity."

British rock comes out of art schools and universities. It is music of ideas, with originality and vision often admired above musicianship. It is forged in the glare of the merciless British music press. In a small country, with a limited live circuit and almost claustrophobic media, bands have to be very strong to survive, and very brilliant to flourish. US rock, by contrast, is forged on the road. In a huge country with an enormous population, American bands tour relentlessly, learning their skills in front of live audiences. It can result in very high levels of musical ability, but it is also a recipe for creating highly accomplished, road warrior showbands who pander to the lowest common denominator. American bands tend to have a whole set of cover versions at their fingertips. British bands, on the other hand, sometimes appear to be struggling just to play their own set. But this may actually work in their favour. As The Edge, guitarist with U2, explains: "U2 are the worst bar band in the world. The reason we developed the unique style that we have is because that was the only way forward, it was the approach that suited our rather schizophrenic and uneven talents."

In the '80s, U2 began their ascent to becoming the greatest, most passionate and innovative stadium rock band of our times. During the same period, America gave us Bon Jovi, jumped-up bar-room rock with big hair. In the '90s, things took on a slightly different complexion. Britain gave us Oasis and Radiohead but they were easily matched by the best America had to offer. REM had their moment at the top of the pile with albums as soulful and inventive as any in rock's canon, although, for all their gifts, there is a quirkiness to the band that has not sustained them on the stadium frontline.

And then along came Nirvana, who, for raw passion, addictive hooks and global resonance, can surely lay some claim of their own to the title of greatest American rock band of all time. Yet their career was cut short so dramatically, their place in rock's canon essentially comes down to one universally loved album, Nevermind, and the almost mythical impact created by Kurt Cobain's suicide (which puts him in the elite company of Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix, all-time greats who never got to fulfil their potential). Instead, the most enduring American stadium band of the '90s turned out to be funk-rock outfit the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, a band formerly given to performing naked but for strategically-placed socks.

And it is those notorious socks, perhaps, that define the gulf between the great British and American rock bands. Clearly, for the Chilli Peppers, size matters. They are about spectacle and entertainment and not much more besides. The great British bands all have something beneath the surface, something that resonates deeply with their listeners. These are bands whose greatness would not be in doubt, no matter how many people tuned in. As Plant said of Led Zeppelin, they were striking for higher ground. It is the world of difference between wearing your heart on your sleeve and knitted footwear on your member.

Source: Telegraph

Music giant EMI offered investors hope today that a shortfall in annual profits would not be as bad as originally feared.

EMI warned in February that profits would drop by 15 per cent to £138 million after key album releases from Coldplay and Gorillaz were delayed until spring, but said it now believes the annual figure will be closer to £141 million.

In its final update before the release of its full-year results next month, EMI said the slowdown in sales at its recorded music division was also not as severe as previously thought. EMI said it now believed sales of recorded music would be around 7.5 per cent lower after stripping out the impact of currency fluctuations in the year to March 31 - against its earlier guidance of an 8 per cent to 9 per cent decline.

The positive update failed to reverse any of the damage caused by the February profits warning which wiped 15 per cent off the value of the stock. EMI shares traded 0.5p lower at 246.75p today. Hopes that the company will be able to return its recorded music division to growth are underpinned by the scheduled release of Coldplay's new album - titled X&Y - on June 6.Music fans will be able to buy the Demon Days album by the Gorillaz even sooner as it is due to appears on store shelves on May 23.

In February, EMI said delays to both albums had caused it to lose market share over the past year despite successful releases from other artists such as Robbie Williams and The Rolling Stones.

The setbacks overshadowed a brighter assessment of the health of the global recorded music industry which has suffered from piracy and illegal downloads.

The company added at the time that its music publishing arm, which holds the rights to more than one million musical compositions, continued to perform well.

If you haven't already seen it here is the artwork for the Speed Of Sound single. If you can crack the secret behind the new Coldplay artwork or want help click here

Details on the X&Y artwork can be found here

[thanks Owen]