Stopping Pre-Release Album Leaks
If I had to guess, I’d say that about 90% or more of rock albums released this year and last have leaked online prior to the actual release date. Digital music piracy is one of the biggest problems facing record labels (or so they claim), and a big part of that is albums hitting the Internet days, weeks, or sometimes months before the release. Sure, once albums are out there’s very little that a label could do to prevent it from being available online, because everybody in the general public could have a physical copy. Actually, I’d say there’s absolutely nothing a label can really do about it. But, labels could stop probably 99.9% of pre-release album leaks, and they could do so quite easily. Why aren’t they? It may be that the answer is just so simple that it’s overlooked.
When an album is leaked prior to release, where does it come from? Well, the only people that have the albums are the bands, the studios producing them, the labels, and journalists. Sometimes, although probably rarely, leaks come from the studios themselves, or from somebody at the label, or a friend of someone who works at either. The easiest way to curtail that is to simply limit who has access to pre-release music and if somebody is found out as the leak source, seek the highest penalties the law allows to scare the crap out of anybody else working there who might be thinking of doing it themselves. There are no stats on what percentage comes from where, but I’d venture a guess that almost all of the leaks happen because of advances sent out to the media.
In this day and age, in addition to traditional media outlets, the Internet has seen a multitude of music blogs and news sites pop up, and even a relatively small blog will have no problem getting a label to send them CDs for review. Even when we were first starting out and had probably 50 visitors a day, we were getting album advances in the mail. But, that’s not to say that somebody who is running said website is the one leaking the album online—a lot of times it’s probably an editor or reviewer giving a copy to his buddy and telling him not to pass it on, but then it happens anyway. Either way, most instances can probably be safely attributed to the advanced review copy.
Labels do realize that this is where the problem lies and they have been trying to take steps to prevent it, it’s just that they’re either misguided or just not technically proficient enough to realize their efforts are pointless. The common trend these days is one of two things… we get CDs that are physically printed with our name and company name on them and the threat of a digital watermark on the tracks, or we get sent advances digitally through a service. There are a few services that have popped up that have managed to get the major labels and other larger ones to sign up and pay them to service advanced music to the media. The idea is to have one consolidated place where we login with our email address and password, and it’s essentially like webmail where we have music waiting for us. The funny thing is, this is supposed to be protected from downloading and a stream only, but they don’t seem to realize that anything that can be heard through your computer speakers can be saved. There is no such thing as offering a stream online that cannot be reproduced digitally on the computer playing it. As for the physical CDs, watermarked or not, somebody who really wanted to can strip out any identifying features and still leak it. It might take more effort, but it can be done.
So what is the big secret to preventing all these pre-release leaks? Easy, put a voiceover on the tracks. No, really, that’s it. Yeah, if you put a voiceover like “This album in stores July 6th” a lot of pirates don’t care and they’ll learn to ignore it. But, if the voiceover for example was “This advanced album was sent to MyReviewSite.com”, is MyReviewSite.com going to leak that track? If they think doing it is worth getting sued and their business shut down, yes. In reality will they? No. Sure, they could cut out the part that says just MyReviewSite.com, but in another part of the song just repeat “MyReviewSite.com, MyReviewSite.com, MyReviewSite.com” a few times. At that point, if they’re going to leak the track or album, there’s going to be actual pieces missing, and anybody who actually wants the album, even if they don’t want to pay for it, aren’t getting it pre-release. And in-between those voiceovers, go ahead and leave in the hidden digital watermarks for good measure. Even if there’s people who really want the album but are determined not to pay for it, at the very least you’re keeping the hype alive for release day.
Doing a voiceover for each media outlet you’re sending an album to might be time-consuming, but if piracy is really as much of a problem as the labels claim and is costing them as much as they say it is, then it’s worth it. Think about it, it would effectively cease any pre-release album leak—at least as a whole. It takes at the very most 20 minutes per album to do. Hell, if you want to outsource it to TuneLab, hit the contact link above and get in touch. We’ll do it for you for cheap. If any reviewer claims that they can’t accurately review an album because of a 15-second disruption on a track, then tell them to get over it, because he or she is full of it.
So labels, there’s your easy answer for stopping an album from leaking out ahead of time from sources outside your organization. Question is, will you do it?
15 Comments
How about scrapping CD’s and only making music available online to purchase?
ITunes wouldnt be able to leak albums before its official release date so the general internet public couldnt get music earlier than release dates then would they….?
Just a thought but I guess there are other ways too that I havent thought of.
Lately a lot of the leaks have came from the actual band themselves. They end up streaming the entire album a week before the albums comes out. A lot of the leaks out there are web-rips.
Yeah, they don’t seem to get that either. Funny thing is, even when I offer them the option to do a voiceover, they don’t take it. Like they just give up or something. I almost want to ask if I can just offer the download.
What’s going to happen soon is you’re going to see less streams. Universal already adopted a blanket policy of no streams of full songs anywhere at all, unless the place streaming it pays for it (AOL). The only exception is like what we did with We Are The Fallen. They let us stream only four songs, and we had to have the voiceovers at the certain spot.
I still think the best way to stop it is by giving the fans what they want first and foremost…the album.
Let me explain.
Halestorm did this perfectly last year. They still had a “street date” but what they did was they decided that they were going to sell the album immediately digitally to fans.
They had a deal where if you bought the album digitally, you got it right away, no questions asked. That is awesome for a fan and awesome for someone just discovering a band that they happen to really like.
Halestorm may have had a slightly different situation as there were fans waiting since Snocore 2006 to buy an album of theirs, but I think labels need to not street date…at least digitally. It’s going to leak eventually and I think the only way to solve the problem is to sell it as soon as you can. I think they could even get away with a deal like…if you’re willing to pay $5-$10 more, you get the album (or special edition of the album) immediately, otherwise you would get it on the street date.
Once a song goes on a Myspace, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t already be available for purchase. That’s another part of the problem. If people realize that it isn’t available for purchase and it’s going to take another 3 weeks for it to surface…they’re gonna find other ways to find the song.
You get it. If you have music, particularly that people want, sell it! I also still think that’s really interesting about the paying extra to get an album early. I think I did a poll a while back in the forum asking if people would do that. The response was that they wouldn’t though. But still an interesting concept.
I think when we form our label we’re going to have a concept like a digital album for ~$5-6, and for somewhere between $10 and $12, you get the digital instantly and a physical in the mail.
That’s what I never got. If you have something and it’s done why wait months weeks to sell it specially in the “We want it now age”. If you finish an album,movie,etc why not release it ASAP. Why wait months. If it’s done put it out. then market it while it’s out. People will care more if you tell them you have something & prove it. Not the albums done, it be out in three weeks, months etc. I understand that the band can be done recording the album then it’s off to mixing & mastering, Printing etc, but if you have the files why not sell right away. Music will always be leaked,via youtube,blogs,etc. Hell half of it’s from people that bough the album then give it out freely as if it’s their to give away.
long live the scene
jay, most of the leak, as said above, are marketing strategies realized by the labels themselves, so is pretty much unstoppable…
I think you worry too much, because if the labels really wanted to stop it, they could create ways to enhance control on the people evolved…
Btw, Tunelab should stop to watermark and voiceover what you guys stream here…
regards,
tgb
I’m not worried about it, I’m just telling the labels that worry about it how to fix it.
And they are not marketing strategies by the label. I don’t know what it with you and other people like you that run these pirate sites, but if an album is streaming online, it is intended to be temporary, not for download. There is a difference between streaming and offering a download that is either not realized by you people, or you’re just pretending to not know the difference.
And to any labels reading, this guy that runs a pirate site saying we should stop doing voiceovers is proof of concept.
Jay jay… is nothing about running a site, neither distributing free music…
For example, we know that itunes incomes are increasing as days goes by… so maybe the situation its not that bad as you state.
Plus, the P2P distribution is very good for the bands themselves, because promote them throughout the world to places and countries we wouldnt have access thru labels alone and can´t buy their music due to labels copyrighted reasons. (ex. in brasil we cant buy stuff from amazon store neither itunes, but we can download the music from the bands we like… its a market share labels are losing…)
Additionaly, they are getting much more $$$ from LIVE performances than before, and the labels are also getting a bigger cut…
It´s a brand new world with a hole different way of doing business… bands are aknoledging that as are offer free music to the fans, album previews, etc then charge more for the performances, and the labels know that it´s a way to overcome pirating.
Always a pleasure
Regards,
TGB
the only time i remember a label leaking a song was too drunk by buckcherry, cuz josh todd was mad about the whole deal
Honestly, you can break it down real easy. There’s people who will pay for an album, and people who won’t. The question seems to be, are early leaks of albums causing people who WOULD have paid for it to NOT pay for it? If so, you have a problem. If not, then what’s the deal?
Also, the idea about releasing an album when it’s ready to be released is a good point. I’m sure the new Alter Bridge album is either finished or damn near, and we’ve probably got another 3 months at least before it’s out…
true story. I want that shit now!
I don’t necessarily think that all leaks come from labels, journalists, etc. I used to work at Target, and we’d get shipments of CDs that weren’t due out for another week all the time. We almost got busted because we put out some rapper’s CD out on display a week before it was to be released. I’m sure there is at least one person for every artist, not just at Target, but at most record stores worldwide, who would take their CD, bust it open and throw it on the Internet a week early. I’m sure that journalists and everyone else don’t help the problem, and watermarking/voiceovers could help, but you can’t do that to the final physical product, which ends up being shipped to retailers a week early anyways.
I never even listen to the full album until I buy it. It keeps things interesting for me. Plus it adds a certain degree of satisfaction knowing that I’m supporting an artist by buying something of theirs. Ultimately, people need to learn to control themselves and realize that they are hurting the artists that they love when they don’t purchase their music. No record sales means no more records, tours, merch, etc. That’s just the reality of it whether people want to accept it or not.
If I could buy an album early for extra $$, I would, but that concept won’t work, because people that pay extra will think they have a right to distribute since they paid more. Voice over wouldn’t necessarily work either. All it takes is one determined guy to go into an audio program and erase all the tags.
Agree with Justin, If I download it early, then buy it 2 weeks later, what’s the big deal?
If you really want to stop piracy, there are laws that can be enforced and steps that that the RIAA can take, in conjunction with Homeland Security and the Justice Department. Basically, its like this: a few years back President Bush eliminated all privacy. The government can access any bit of info on us that they want for any reason. Everything you do online can be watched. Additionally, isp’s have been required to report certain types of criminal activity online for years now, mainly child pornography. What’s to say that this can’t be expanded to digital piracy? The day that the government decides that that they want to, they can force all of the ISP’s to turn over the ip addys of everyone who has been stealing online. I’m actually surprised that this hasn’t happened already.
It really comes down to this: if you have illegaly downloaded or uploaded copyrighted material of any kind, there is a didital signature of it that is currently stored on your isp’s servers as well as those of the sites that make it happen. You have already been caught. it’s just a matter of when the other shoe drops.