This is getting beyond ridiculous, many music consumers are saying to themselves or to someone else. Virtually every major hip-hop artist’s latest album is released to the public long before its release date.
Yesterday, it was Eminem’s Recovery album. The other day, there was a cut from Drake’s debut CD (yes, he is actually a debut artist). Why is the integrity of a rap album being ripped and uploaded onto the Internet with seeming impunity?
One theory is that it’s usually people on the inside that are working with the artists. A DJ or producer with access to songs may leak them intentionally because he or she is mad at the artist or is doing it for incentives.
Another is that the label sends promo versions to the magazines and radio stations, they review it, and somewhere along the line, one of the people with access to a promo like this, rips it and uploads it.
For those over 35, remember the days when albums actually got released on their release dates? Those days are history. All that, of course, was before file-sharing became rampant by virtue of new technologies that can spread recordings widely and quickly. Nowadays, there is no such thing as an album that can’t be heard before its release date. Absolutely everything leaks. Everything.
Some companies offer content-protection services, including Macrovision, MediaSentry, and Web Sheriff, whose specialty is sending polite ‘please-take-this-down-thanks’ e-mails. But no matter how many download attempts they manage to foil, these operations still act as nothing more than mosquito bites; people simply swat them away and keep digging for their favorite artist’s material.
Eric Garland, CEO of BigChampagne, which monitors online media, says the company’s research has determined that someone determined to find a record will eventually find it, regardless of the technological roadblocks placed in their path. “Virtually one hundred percent of the time, somebody seeking a popular song will get a free copy of it,” he told Spin magazine.
It’s not just rap albums that get released early illegally. Not even close. Spin magazine wrote three years ago that approximately 1 in 5 albums get jacked. “In the worst case scenario the entire album may be leaked hours, days, or even weeks before the scheduled release date. Traditionally, it’s been a headache for some musicians and a nightmare for record executives.”
During 2007, no less than Linkin Park, The White Stripes, Spin, The Shins and Ryan Adams were victims of early leaks, sometimes many months in advance of the scheduled release dates.
Of course, sometimes an early release of songs or a complete album is deliberate. Prince, who once famously scrawled “SLAVE” across his right cheek in rebellion against Warner Bros., gave away copies of his album, Planet Earth by including it in the Sunday newspaper package of a British tabloid. It was something that greatly pleased UK fans “but ripped the music industry in England already reeling through back-to-back-to-back years of declining sales,” Spin wrote.
So yes, the other culprits are the artists themselves. Either they do it for promotional purposes or guerilla marketing, or, if they rely on journalists’ reviews to generate interest, they merely accept the fact that some reporters are going to either upload the discs themselves or give them to their friends, coworkers or acquaintances who then burn copies or upload them.
Either way, it looks like leaks are here to stay — whether it’s rap or any other genre. –terry shropshire
