Pirated Oasis songs make record company bosses look back in anger

Pirated songs from the new Oasis album have become available on the internet three months before its official release, prompting an inquiry at the music giant Sony.

Record company executives are angry that the band's fifth album, which has been recorded by Liam and Noel Gallagher amid tight secrecy, is being downloaded by fans worldwide from unofficial websites.

The album, entitled Heathen Chemistry, is not due for release until July. The first single, "Hindu Times", is due to be released on Monday.

But the song is one of five tracks to have appeared on the internet. The others are: "Songbird", "Stop Crying Your Heart Out", "She Is Love" and "Little by Little".

The music industry anticipates a prompt response from the band's record label.

When tracks from Manic Street Preachers' last album, Know Your Enemy, appeared on Napster, Sony Music warned the music-sharing website that it was in danger of breaching copyright. Napster closed the accounts of fans who had downloaded the Manics' songs.

Sony Music has previously threatened the large number of unofficial Oasis websites with legal action if they breached copyright laws. A statement from Sony said: "A lot of major artists, prior to the release of an album, find their music stolen and available on the internet. There are some Oasis songs out there on unauthorised websites and we will do what we have always done – shut them down."

In a recent interview Noel Gallagher attacked the trend towards using webcams to promote bands. He said: "There's a webcam in the Radiohead studio while they are recording their album. And they write a diary. There's too much information going on here. I don't want to know how you make your records and I don't want you to know how I make mine. The more information you give people, the more the magic goes out of the music. Webcams in studios I find appalling. Ours would be quite interesting as it goes – you'd just see a load of people sitting around drinking."

Heathen Chemistry features the first songwriting contributions from Oasis's newest members, Andy Bell, the bassist, and the guitarist, Gem Archer. In advance of a planned world tour to promote the album, Oasis have lined up a handful of dates in the US and UK. They will headline a festival in California on 28 April. They will also play sold-out shows at Finsbury Park, London, from 5-7 July, and will headline the T In The Park festival at Kinross, in Scotland, on 13 July.