Hail to the Thief leaks ten weeks early, as unfinished mixes

All 14 tracks of Hail to the Thief went up on websites late on Sunday 30 March, ten weeks before the album is due out on 9 June in Britain and 10 June in North America. By Monday morning fans were burning copies. It is the third Radiohead album in a row to get out early; Kid A and Amnesiac leaked too, and still entered the Billboard 200 at number one and number two.

A few stations played the files in the first days, Triple J three tracks on the Monday morning and XFM in Vancouver the whole album. EMI, Capitol's parent company, has sent cease and desist orders to people hosting the MP3s on personal web pages, and they have begun to disappear. Radiohead and Parlophone are preparing a full investigation to find whoever leaked it.

Nigel Godrich, who produced the album, went on the official Radiohead message board to ask where he could find the MP3s. He had tried Limewire with no luck. About ten minutes later he had heard them. Well wadya know.....Its the rough mixes .... some tracks not even finished. aint that a bitch? Not really what I'd want the world to hear, frankly. boo.¹⁰ The next day he added that the files had not even been mixed, never mind mastered.

Jonny Greenwood heard about the leak when his brother Colin rang him. His first post, on the Monday morning, was mild. I feel bemused, not annoyed. I'm glad people like it, most of all. It's a little earlier than we'd expected, but there it is.² He had only downloaded “I Will” so far, to check it really was them, and when another poster blamed Ed O'Brien, Jonny said that explained the shades and the holidays.

By 2 April he was angrier. The files were a stolen copy of early, unmixed edits and roughs, the songs as they stood in February, and that was a different thing from people swapping released music on Napster. His anger, he said, was at the situation, not at the fans.

Stanley Donwood, who makes the band's artwork, wrote that there were worse things to worry about, though he wanted to know who had leaked it, since the promotional copies had not even gone out. Colin backed his brother up, saying everyone in the band was unhappy to see the wrong mixes of the wrong songs on the net. It's like having your house done over halfway though having it done up.⁶ Phil Selway said the recording process had been compromised. Its not that these mixes are bad, it's just that the actual album is better - honest.⁷

Ten days of the leak