In a move that goes against the recent trend of artists fighting to keep their unreleased music off the web, the pioneering British electronica group Massive Attack will be placing all of its new album online weeks before it arrives in stores.

The band plans to whet their audience's taste for the album, entitled "Mezzanine," by releasing audio and video clips from the record in stages. The preview begins March 20, when 45 seconds of "Teardrop," the first single, will be available in Real Audio from Virgin Records' American website (www.virginrecords.com/massive-attack).

On March 23, the full-length version of "Teardrop" will be available, along with 30 seconds of its accompanying video and 45 seconds of audio from every album track. A week later, the site will have the complete audio from all 11 tracks from "Mezzanine" and the entire video for "Teardrop."

As we reported earlier (see "Massive Attack Drops Plans To Remix Radiohead, Teams With Cocteau Twins"), three of the tracks on the new Attack album, including "Teardrop," will feature vocals by Cocteau Twins singer Liz Fraser. "Mezzanine" is due out May 12.