On April 2nd, Roxette's new album, "Room Service," will be released in most parts of the world. But for two days now, it's been possible to download the entire CD from the controversial, legally-embattled Napster file-sharing service.

  This fact has been the subject of discussion in our SmallTalk forum and on the Roxette Mailing List. Today, it hit the pages of the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.

  "There's not much that can be done about it. It was the same for Madonna and U2," said Roxette's manager Marie Dimberg to Aftonbladet. "We can hope that the majority of Roxette fans will want the real album with the booklet and packaging" she said.

  "It's sad that this has happened," said Li Eriksson of EMI, who, along with Per and Marie, has their attorney attempting to remove the files from Napster. As to how they got there in the first place… well, the list of potential suspects is large. While the Aftonbladet article mentions a possible theft from the factory, Eriksson told TDR that "of course there is a possibility that someone from the media put it there - journalists get listening copies of the album before interviewing Per and Marie. Also, retailers get copies to listen to before hand."

  Yet to be determined, of course, is how damaging this will be to the overall success of the "Room Service" project. Legal and monetary issues aside, the fear is that it will hurt sales – and therefore chart positions. Other fans cite industry figures that CD sales are up, and feel that that the impact will be negligible.

  So far, there has been no direct comment from Per or Marie, who are in rehearsals for the upcoming showcase concerts.

• Aftonbladet article (In Swedish)