How Coldplay's album campaign led the field.

Personally-underwritten free concerts at venues including Madison Square Garden and issuing a no-charge download of their first single in two years were risky manouvres but, for Coldplay, their campaign for fourth album Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends hit the ground running. Music Week looks at EMI and Coldplay's still-evolving album plans for 2008 and beyond

Coldplay's Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends surpassed the 5m global sales mark last week, and in doing so became not only the fastest-selling album of the year so far, but also answered those who doubted EMI's ability to deliver en masse for one of the year's most anticipated releases.

Reflecting on the campaign, the band's record company and management can rest assured in the knowledge that the album's unorthodox release strategy proved successful. Like other big-name releases in recent times such as Radiohead, The Raconteurs and Madonna, the promotional campaign for Viva La Vida... failed to follow a traditional release route, with the band boldly leading the campaign with a free download of lead single Violet Hill on April 29. This was swiftly followed by free concerts in London, Barcelona and New York personally underwritten by the band, magazine covermounts and carefully-chosen television appearances, all of which formed part of a conscious effort by the band to reconnect with their audience.

"A lot of the main messages came from the band themselves this time around," reflects 3D Management CEO Dave Holmes. "`We're giving away this free song' or `We're giving away these free tickets'. Rather than using the media, the first call to action came from the band and that was definitely a conscious decision."

Coldplay approached the set with career sales tallying 32m units and riding the wave of the biggest album of their career, X&Y. But having sought to be the biggest band in the world, and achieving it, Coldplay chose their fourth studio album to let the music speak for itself.

"It was a more humble approach this time around," affirms Parlophone president Miles Leonard. "The way the band presented themselves on X&Y is that they were pushing to be the biggest band in the world and there was a lot of grandiose imagery in the videos and performance that affirmed that. This time around they wanted to reconnect with their fanbase and to give back to everybody that had supported the band over their career so far."

"We felt it was important that the band had really concentrated on delivering a great piece of music; something that stretched them a little further and allowed that to do the talking. We wanted people to discover this album."