Gennaro Castaldo Watch: Giving away the store

As people rush to download the new Coldplay record, for free, off the internet, Gennaro Castaldo pins his hopes on album sales:

“Coldplay will not have made a huge loss by giving away their first single because they are very much a group that connects with their fans via their album," HMV's Gennaro Castaldo said. “The industry will be looking very carefully at how the album sells following their decision to allow their fans to downlaod the first single for free.”

Well, yes, it won't have hurt Coldplay to give the single away - indeed, a few years back record labels would frequently give away singles to the stores so they could sell them for 99p in the week of release. But it must have hurt HMV and Zavvi a little, surely?