April 30, 2008

By By Lars Brandle, London

Coldplay's decision to offer its "Violet Hill" as a free download has unsurprisingly generated massive interest.

According to EMI, the track has been downloaded more than 600,000 times in the 24 hours since it was made available on the band's Web site just after midday U.K. time on Tuesday.

The DRM-free download will only be available free for a week, after which time it will go on sale May 6 as a paid-for download.

The music company today labelled the trial a "huge success."

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