Imagine if you had a time machine and could zoom back to 2000, when Coldplay released their debut album, and tell the band that 15 years later, their Instagram teasers for a new LP would be liveblogged by a national newspaper.
Admittedly, you’d have to explain Instagram, and probably liveblogging… But yes, the Guardian’s music team spent yesterday afternoon reporting on Coldplay’s 15-second teasers for ‘A Head Full Of Dreams’, as the band released a new clip at hourly intervals on their Instagram account.
Coldplay also posted the album’s artwork and tracklisting via Facebook’s photos/videos app. It’s something that Instagram is keen to encourage, with the company noting that Rihanna, Lana Del Rey, Justin Bieber and Muse have all used it to tease new music already in 2015, along with Adele using Instagram to reveal the artwork for her ’25’ album.
Coldplay have 1.7 million followers on Instagram, although the Guardian liveblog will have brought their teasers to other music fans too. “Over 10 hours, we were treated to about 7 minutes 50 seconds of music from Coldplay’s new album. What a time to be alive,” as journalist Tshepo Mokoena put it in the liveblog’s wrap-up.
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