Coldplay gives away new single, announces free MSG show :: Music News :: Articles

When you’re as big as Coldplay, you are granted a series of magical powers. Which ones? Teleportation, for one thing. That one’s useful when you need to buy baby Apple an obscure, handcrafted something-or-other only available in, say, Slovenia.

Another magical power? The power to Take Over the Web. Well, not exactly, but you can bet that there may users of “teh intenets” are currently hanging out at Coldplay.com.

What’s the appeal of a little homepage? This morning, Coldplay began offering its new single, “Violet Hill,” for download. For free. For one week only. That’s one tenth of the band’s new album, Viva la Vida (out June 17th), absolutely free.

In other big news, Coldplay is showing its allegiance to this whole getting-things-without-paying thing, because on June 23rd, the band will play a free show at New York’s Madison Square Garden. There will be no tickets—just some very lucky winners. Check back with Paste for all of the ticket-getting info, and be sure to grab that single before next week, when you’ll have to pay for it. Oh, the horror!

Finally, the website reveals the Viva la Vida album cover, which confirms another important Coldplay magical power: the ability to spray-paint French Romantic painter Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People, in the name of music!

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