How do albums leak?

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I mean, are all these rough cuts being stolen and put on the internet by some Judas in an artist's inner circle? Are there just a huge ammount of people coming in and out of the studio all day long and it's hard to keep track? I mean, EVERYTHING leaks. It's a surprise when it doesn't. How hard is it to protect your shit?

― David Allen (David Allen), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 20:13 (twenty years ago)

I imagine it comes down to disgruntled engineers, hangers on, and press/label people with advance copies.

― Shakey Mo Collie, Wednesday, 2 February 2005 20:16 (twenty years ago)

don't discount how often an artist or label leaks his/her/their own cd.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 20:17 (twenty years ago)

fcc OTM, i have a feeling this is a much more common practice than most would believe. free hype.

― jonviachicago, Wednesday, 2 February 2005 20:20 (twenty years ago)

Most album leaks come from an online community that calls itself the "scene." They stay pretty secret and don't have public representations like blogs or forums. They have members that are different sorts of industry insiders: music journalists, people at CD pressing plants, people inside record labels, etc. They have private places they store the stuff they leak. Then, some dude gives it to his sister, who emails a copy to her boyfriend, who puts it on his blog, who gets linked to on ILM.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 20:24 (twenty years ago)

And yeah, fact checking cuz is right. Bands do leak their own albums also, but that is much less common.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 20:25 (twenty years ago)

Oh, and sometimes albums don't "leak" until a few days before it's supposed to be released. That's almost always just due to a guy working at a music store who took a copy of the album home before sticking it on the shelf. It's not like they get their shipments every Tuesday morning.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 20:26 (twenty years ago)

And very, very rarely, an album is stolen. I think read somewhere that Aphex Twin's iPod was stolen which had his next album on it. If my memory is right, that happened with Drukqs. Also, hacking into record label servers and stuff. That's very rare though.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 20:27 (twenty years ago)

from an associated press story on the making of the song "yeah," published today:

After the track was completed, radio stations mysteriously got a copy of it, and soon it was getting up to 3,000 spins per week on stations nationwide.

"Well, I guess it's no secret. Lil Jon and I leaked the record," [L.A.] Reid said.

DJs ignored the typically toothless cease-and-desist letters from Arista telling them to quit playing the unreleased song...

so there you have it, straight from the horse's mouth: the president of the label leaks the record to radio, then the label "complains" about the leak, then the song becomes a smash, then the label admits what a funny little game they played, ha ha.

and labels wonder why no one takes them seriously, or gives the slightest shit, when they complain about other leaks.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 22:03 (twenty years ago)

does anyone know anything about the security of CD pressing plants? I wonder how easy/difficult it is for any employee to walk off with a test pressing.

― Al (sitcom), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 22:05 (twenty years ago)

sometimes things are leaked intentionally. but don't be cynical enough to think that's the sole reason it happens; there's also a lot of outright theft in studios these days. entire pre-mixed albums getting posted online.

How does stuff get 'leaked' before release?

― (Jon L), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 22:13 (twenty years ago)

i'm not cynical enough to think that's the whole reason it happens. i AM cynical enough to think that since it sometimes happens that way, and since labels try to draw attention to their own intentional leaks by complaining about them in the media, the same media (has the public) has the collective right to say "tough shit, why should we care" when the labels try to complain for real. you can't play both sides of the game and expect the media and the public to play along with you.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 22:17 (twenty years ago)

I'm with you

― (Jon L), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 22:18 (twenty years ago)

"(has the public)" = "(and the public)." d'oh.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 22:19 (twenty years ago)

at the same time, wincing at that recent ILM thread where people were mercilessly picking over and ranking the new Beck album, when it obviously hadn't even been mixed yet... artists used to be able to actually finish their albums before the firing squad lined up

― (Jon L), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 22:21 (twenty years ago)

i'm with you

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 22:23 (twenty years ago)

I forget which band it was.. maybe Linkin Park? But there was stories about how the team behind one band was put through very Draconian security rules in regards to the recording/finalizing process of their album as far as no one else knowing about it and the results and sub-mixes, and it just amazed me. The studio was run by a warden, practically! To give them credit, it worked. Nothing leaked.

This is common practice in the video game industry, and -- while leaks and stealing code, and "stealing code" occur -- it happens far less often than with albums/CDs. The stakes are much higher, and anyone caught with the leaking pretty much destroys their career potential.

― donut christ (donut), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 22:23 (twenty years ago)

Then again, the video game industry is usually more lucrative per developer/team member/worker than the music industry as far as any worker doing anything other than and/or under a high management position, so the incentive to not leak isn't as strong.

― donut christ (donut), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 22:25 (twenty years ago)

actually that beck album wasn't even done. there are instruments or takes missing from almost every track on there.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 22:43 (twenty years ago)

isn't it often reviewers and writers leaking promo/advance copies?

― La Monte (La Monte), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 22:48 (twenty years ago)

does anyone know anything about the security of CD pressing plants? I wonder how easy/difficult it is for any employee to walk off with a test pressing.

-- Al (hoteloper...) (webmail), February 2nd, 2005.

There's no way to answer that. There's CD pressing plants all over the world and each is different.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Thursday, 3 February 2005 02:19 (twenty years ago)

I would guess that about 85% of album leaks do come from music journalists who get promo copies. That estimate may be way off, but I am positive that the majority of leaks occur that way.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Thursday, 3 February 2005 02:22 (twenty years ago)

Anyone else read that LA Times story on the ridiculous security measures Linkin Park took to keep their last album from getting leaked?

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Thursday, 3 February 2005 03:30 (twenty years ago)

I would guess that about 85% of album leaks do come from music journalists who get promo copies. That estimate may be way off, but I am positive that the majority of leaks occur that way.

Not to mention all the cds marked "Promo" in the used bins...

― Edward Bax (EdBax), Thursday, 3 February 2005 03:32 (twenty years ago)

"Not to mention all the cds marked "Promo" in the used bins..."

A lot of those also come from label employees and independent publicists looking to supplement their income.

― michaeln (kid loki), Thursday, 3 February 2005 03:36 (twenty years ago)

I mean, obv, people who are working those records and have access to dozens of copies, not necessarily people who got one promo in the mail. (Not that this has anything to do with leaked albums.)

― michaeln (kid loki), Thursday, 3 February 2005 03:39 (twenty years ago)

Edward Bax, well, by the time they hit the used bins, they've already been leaked, so eh...

― Mickey (modestmickey), Thursday, 3 February 2005 03:42 (twenty years ago)

(x-post)
I am positive that the majority of leaks occur that way.

i'm curious what makes you so positive about that. promo copies are given away in copious amounts to radio stations and generally the label's own employees in addition to journalists, just to name a couple obvious exampoles. what makes you think journalists are the only ones who leak them and/or sell them back to stores?

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 3 February 2005 03:46 (twenty years ago)

Green Day apparently recorded an album prior to their most recent one, and the masters were stolen. This thread makes me wonder: how come that album has yet to leak?

― cdwill, Thursday, 3 February 2005 03:58 (twenty years ago)

Mickey, I wasn't blaming the promos in the used bins for the leaks.

I was blaming journos for the promos, in addition to the leaks. (Say that three times fast.)

― Edward Bax (EdBax), Thursday, 3 February 2005 04:05 (twenty years ago)

fact checking cuz, knowing tons of people involved in this is what makes me so sure. Although I admit I didn't know too many people, those I did know who worked at radio stations rarely got full albums. They mostly just got singles. Is that true? It makes sense. Why would a label send them a full album when all they're going to play is the single?

― Mickey (modestmickey), Thursday, 3 February 2005 04:06 (twenty years ago)

Also, when thinking about how many promo copies of albums go where, just think about how many newspapers there are in the world. Not only that, but webpages too.

Here's a zine nobody here talks about (because it sucks): http://www.http://www.kludgemagazine.com/

Maybe it's somewhat in bad taste for me to reveal them, but I will anyway since for so many people it's common knowledge, and for the people involved, they protect themselves worse than Ryan hides his fucking MP3's on pitchforkmedia.com. There's a MP3 group in the scene called KSi. That's short for Kludge Sound Inc. They used to be one of the top groups, although as of May (when I stopped paying attention to the scene), they sucked. Real bad. See the name of that zine? Kludge Magazine? If you're guessing that there may be a connection, you are right. They started that webpage to get promos. It actually works. They don't get anything big, but smaller labels do send them rips. Can you believe it's that easy?

― Mickey (modestmickey), Thursday, 3 February 2005 04:11 (twenty years ago)

wow I fucked that up

http://www.kludgemagazine.com

― Mickey (modestmickey), Thursday, 3 February 2005 04:15 (twenty years ago)

They don't get anything big, but smaller labels do send them rips.

but that's part of the issue right there. there may be millions of websites but very very few of them are getting advance copies of major albums. same with newspapers -- you don't think the pop critics in sacramento and columbus are getting early copies of usher and britney cds, do you?

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 3 February 2005 04:17 (twenty years ago)

No, but there are lots of people who are. And they share the stuff they do get.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Thursday, 3 February 2005 04:20 (twenty years ago)

Here's a thought: a lot of labels - at least, in the UK - outsource their PR to outside PR companies. They get copies of albums to send out to journalists and obviously have the records to hand before journalists do, and have fewer ties to the actual production of the music than people at the label do.

Not saying nothing, but I'm sure a few of these would be likely candidates.

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Thursday, 3 February 2005 04:22 (twenty years ago)

sound engineers leak them - i am a sound engineer

― dandy culfer, Thursday, 3 February 2005 09:00 (twenty years ago)

i put an acdc album under britney spears bum and she writhed on it and the album leaked

― dandy culfer, Thursday, 3 February 2005 09:01 (twenty years ago)

Last Ghostface album - leaked by a sound engineer
Second to last Missy album - leaked by her cousin

They're leaked by people closer to the original recording than PRs and journalists. For example, when the Lil Jon album leaked no one at his label (on the PR side) even had the tracklisting.

― Dyke Jones, Thursday, 3 February 2005 18:40 (twenty years ago)

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