The first track from Keane's new album has become Universal/Island's most popular free download track ever, racking up 500,000 downloads in the week it was online. 'Spiralling' was made available for just seven days via www.keanemusic.com earlier this month, before being taken down again and released via digital stores.
It's a way off the two million downloads Coldplay's 'Violet Hill' managed in a week, but the fact that these figures are even available and that the promotions happened at all shows a huge shift in the majors labels' attitudes to free download content.