U2 fans should expect a new album before the year's out, according to manager Paul McGuinness. When pressed for details, McGuinness told the BBC the release date for the group's first album in four years was "not clear yet but I would think towards the end of October."

One thing's for sure -- U2 will not follow Radiohead's recent decision to offer 'In Rainbows' on a pay-what-you-like basis, saying the move "to some extent backfired." Although that album -- which was placed online in October -- went straight to number one in the UK and U.S. when it became formally available on CD in January, the internet monitoring company Comscore said only 38% of 'In Rainbows' downloaders willingly paid.

"We will obviously work with whatever technology is available to make the release of the new record as interesting as possible," McGuinness told BBC 6. "[But] for U2, physical sales are still an enormous part of our business and we still sell a lot of actual CDs."