A music leak is an unauthorized release of music over the internet. Songs or albums may leak days or months before their scheduled release date. In other cases, the leaked material may be demos or scrapped work never intended for public release. Leaks often originate from hackers who gain unauthorized access to the online storage of an artist, label, producer, or journalist.

Sources

Unreleased music is often acquired by hackers who gain unauthorized access to the e-mail or cloud storage accounts of artists, producers or record labels. Some leaks originate from advance copies sent to journalists, either being leaked by the journalists themselves, or by individuals who gain unauthorized access to these advance copies. For example, the 2006

Joanna Newsom Joanna Newsom (born January 18, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Born and raised in Northern California, Newsom was classically trained on the harp in her youth and began her musical career as a keyboardist in the San Francis ...

album '' Ys'' was leaked when a hacker gained access to an FTP server maintained by the online music publication ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

''. In 2015, a server controlled by the music website ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'' was hacked, resulting in the leaking of albums by

Beach House Beach House is an American musical duo formed in Baltimore, Maryland in 2004. The band consists of Victoria Legrand (vocals, keyboards) and Alex Scally (guitar, keyboard, backing vocals). Their self-titled debut album was released in 2006 to ...

Mac DeMarco MacBriare Samuel Lanyon DeMarco (born Vernor Winfield MacBriare Smith IV; April 30, 1990) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer. DeMarco has released six full-length studio albums, his debut '' Rock and Roll Night ...

, and

Destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in 1 ...

''. It has been alleged that some record labels intentionally stage leaks to create publicity.

Distribution

During the 1990s, leaked music was occasionally shared on the internet, despite relatively slow transmission speeds and music codecs being in their infancy. One of the first albums to leak on the internet was

Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex, in 1980. The band currently consists of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting) and Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting). Depeche ...

's 1993 album ''

Songs of Faith and Devotion ''Songs of Faith and Devotion'' is the eighth studio album by English electronic music band Depeche Mode. It was first released on 22 March 1993 in the United Kingdom by Mute Records and a day later in the United States by Sire Records and Re ...

'', which was shared by fans in chat rooms. In the early 2000s, peer-to-peer file sharing sites such as

Napster Napster was a peer-to-peer file sharing application. It originally launched on June 1, 1999, with an emphasis on digital audio file distribution. Audio songs shared on the service were typically encoded in the MP3 format. It was founded by Shaw ...

were widely used not only for musical piracy, but also for the distribution of leaked music. The landmark copyright lawsuit '' Metallica v. Napster, Inc.'' centered on the leak of a demo recording of the

Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...

song "

I Disappear "I Disappear" is a single by Metallica from the ''Mission: Impossible 2'' soundtrack, which released on May 9, 2000. The music and lyrics were written by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, and they were joined by Bob Rock to produce the song. Th ...

", which was planned to be released as part of the soundtrack to ''Mission: Impossible II''. The leaked demo, which made its way onto radio airplay, was traced to Napster. As peer-to-peer file sharing services declined in popularity, other channels have been used for the distribution of leaked music, such as BitTorrent and "

cyberlocker A file-hosting service, cloud-storage service, online file-storage provider, or cyberlocker is an internet hosting service specifically designed to host user files. It allows users to upload files that could be accessed over the internet afte ...

" services such as

MediaFire MediaFire is a file hosting, file synchronization, and cloud storage service based in Shenandoah, Texas, United States. Founded in June 2006 by Derek Labian and Tom Langridge, the company provides client software for Microsoft Windows, macOS, ...

Reactions

When a song or album leaks ahead of its scheduled release date, record labels often react by moving the release earlier, a process which became simpler as music has shifted from physical to mostly digital distribution. An early example of this was

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...

's 2002 album ''

The Eminem Show ''The Eminem Show'' is the fourth studio album by American rapper Eminem. After it had originally scheduled for release on June 4, 2002, the album was released nine days earlier on May 26, 2002, through Shady Records, Aftermath Entertainment, and ...

''. Originally scheduled for June, its release date was moved to May 28 after the album leaked that month. The effect of an early leak on an album's ultimate sales or popularity is unclear. In 2000, the album ''

Kid A ''Kid A'' is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 2 October 2000 by Parlophone. It was recorded with their producer, Nigel Godrich, in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucestershire and their hometown of Oxford. After th ...

,'' by the English rock band

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass); ...

, was leaked online and shared on the

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer n ...

service

. Asked whether he believed Napster had damaged sales,

Capitol A capitol, named after the Capitoline Hill in Rome, is usually a legislative building where a legislature meets and makes laws for its respective political entity. Specific capitols include: * United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. * Numerou ...

president Ray Lott likened the situation to unfounded concern about home taping in the 1980s. In some cases, a leak may precipitate an official release for materials not planned for release. For example, in 2019, Radiohead released '' MiniDiscs acked', an archive of recordings made around the recording of their 1997 album ''

OK Computer ''OK Computer'' is the third studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released in Japan on 21 May 1997 and in the UK on 16 June 1997. Radiohead self-produced the album with Nigel Godrich, an arrangement they have used for their subsequ ...

'', after a hacker leaked them online. Labels may attempt to stop or slow the spread of leaked files by issuing

DMCA The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or s ...

takedown notices to websites hosting leaked material, or search engines which index these sites.

Prevalence

Album leaks have become increasingly common, with some record executives stating that, beginning in the late 2000s, most albums leak "as a matter of course", though many of these leaks occur shortly before the album's scheduled release and therefore have relatively little effect. When ''

Watch the Throne ''Watch the Throne'' is a collaborative studio album by American rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West, collectively known as The Throne. It was released on August 8, 2011, through Roc-A-Fella Records, Roc Nation, and Def Jam Recordings. Prior to the r ...

'', a 2011 collaboration between rappers

Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one of ...

and

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ear ...

, was released without being preceded by any leaks, this was noted as an unusual circumstance for a highly anticipated album in the Internet age.

Prevention

Digital software

Copy protection Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention and copy restriction, describes measures to enforce copyright by preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media. Copy protection is most commonly found o ...

software has been used on CD releases to prevent the unauthorised distribution of music onto online sites. A notable example of this was the Copy Control system, a

digital rights management Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) such as access control technologies can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works ...

software system used on around 22 million CDs from 2001 to 2006, which was discontinued in the wake of its supposed use as a

rootkit A rootkit is a collection of computer software, typically malicious, designed to enable access to a computer or an area of its software that is not otherwise allowed (for example, to an unauthorized user) and often masks its existence or the exi ...

in the

Sony BMG copy protection rootkit scandal A scandal erupted in 2005 regarding Sony BMG's implementation of copy protection measures on about 22 million CDs. When inserted into a computer, the CDs installed one of two pieces of software that provided a form of digital rights managemen ...

. Digital watermarks, typically used on CD advance copies have allowed leaks to be traced to their original source, are used to deter would-be leakers as it allows them to face legal action. While the source of a leak is not usually announced, it has been in the past; an example of this was with the 2009 Converge album '' Axe to Fall'', where the band publicly named and shamed Shaun Hand at MetalSucks.net, whom the album leak had been traced back to using a digital watermark on a CD

advance copy An advance reading copy, advance review copy, advance reader's edition, advance copy, or a reader's edition (ARC or ARE) is a free copy of a new book given by a publisher to booksellers, librarians, journalists, celebrities, or others, or as a con ...

. This can be used to create viral negative publicity.

Fake album releases

Prior to the release of her 2003 album ''

American Life ''American Life'' is the ninth studio album by American singer Madonna. It was released on April 21, 2003, by Maverick and Warner Bros. Records. The album, produced by the singer and Mirwais Ahmadzaï, features references to many parts of Am ...

'', Madonna planted files on file sharing websites purporting to be leaked tracks from the album; in fact, the audio files consisted of Madonna saying: "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Progressive metal band

Tool A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates bac ...

also announced a fake album called "''Systema Encéphale''" with a fake tracklist in order to deter and detract from leaks of their 2001 album ''

Lateralus ''Lateralus'' () is the third studio album by American rock band Tool. It was released on May 15, 2001, through Volcano Entertainment. The album was recorded at Cello Studios in Hollywood and The Hook, Big Empty Space, and The Lodge, in Nort ...

''.

Surprise or early releases

The rise in leaks during the 2000s led to some popular recording artists surprise-releasing their albums. Some artists have released their albums early in order to deter leaking, for example

Greg Puciato Gregory John Puciato (born March 27, 1980) is an American musician best known as the former lead vocalist and lyricist of the metalcore band the Dillinger Escape Plan. He is also the lead singer of the Black Queen and Killer Be Killed, in whic ...

's 2020 solo album '' Child Soldier: Creator of God'', which was released three weeks earlier than its planned release date in response to a leak.

Notable album leaks

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web , work=Fact magazine , last=Lea, first=Tom , date=29 January 2015 , title=Inside album leaks: how do they happen, how do we stop them, and do they even matter? , url=https://www.factmag.com/2015/01/29/inside-album-leaks-bjork-vulnicura-madonna-rebel-heart/ {{cite web , date=17 June 2019 , last=Horner, first=Al , title=Not OK, computer: how it feels to have your music leaked , work=The Guardian , url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jun/17/hackers-music-industry-leaks-radiohead {{cite web , last=Moraski, first=Lauren , date=22 August 2013 , work=CBS News , title=What's the story behind song leaks? , url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/whats-the-story-behind-song-leaks/ {{cite web , work=Pitchfork , date=28 January 2015 , last=Harvey, first=Eric , title=A History of Digital Album Leaks, 1993-2015 , url=https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/652-a-history-of-digital-album-leaks-1993-2015/ Internet leaks Music industry Copyright infringement