How does this happen?

[nodep5]

I've been trying to sort this out in my head, and my belief is (relating to unreleased music leaking) that it has to be initiated by the artist or record company. Who else would have access to unreleased material? I can see a scenario where artist gives copy to friend and so called friend throws it out there into the world, but how do leaks of never released stuff get out? Sorry if I sound niave, but I want to confirm or deny my theory that it is record companies working to generate buzz and then they cry foul when it gets too big?

[remphish1]

I used to work at my college radio station and we would get copies of discs sometimes months before the release. It can be as easy as some reviewer or radio station getting a hold of a disc early and leaking it.

[hardwood floor]

with stuff like sendspace & hipinion, one early copy from a band member or producer or engineer or studio intern can be all over the world in a few hours

 

the hipinion leak thread is frightening

 

stuff that's not due out for months pops up every day

[nodep5]

I'm not condoning (sp?) either way, It just seems sloppy. In this day in age, whether it is personal information, product, whatever, you think people would be more careful. I just sometimes wonder if it is premeditated. I can't remember the chain of events with YHF, but didn't that Leak? prior to the band making it available on their website. I'm just thinking that this can be a way of generating buzz or testing the market interest or building market interest.

[jff]

CD pressing plants are another source of leaks.

[nodep5]

CD pressing plants are another source of leaks.

 

I'm speaking more about stuff that has never been set for official release. Abandon albums and the what not. I get how promo copies or shady pressing plant employees could leak an album set for release months prior, but how does the studio sessions of something that never saw the light of day get out?

[jff]

I'm speaking more about stuff that has never been set for official release. Abandon albums and the what not. I get how promo copies or shady pressing plant employees could leak an album set for release months prior, but how does the studio sessions of something that never saw the light of day get out?

 

True, but in some cases CDs get sent in for test pressings and then shelved for one reason or another before the full run is pressed/released.

[Analogman]

I'm speaking more about stuff that has never been set for official release. Abandon albums and the what not. I get how promo copies or shady pressing plant employees could leak an album set for release months prior, but how does the studio sessions of something that never saw the light of day get out?

 

You may want to check out these books:

Heylin, Clinton. The Great White Wonders: The Story of Rock Bootlegs

Heylin, Clinton. Bootleg! The Rise & Fall of the Secret Recording Industry

 

I do know that in the case of some lost Black Crowes albums, Chris handed out tapes to people - and in turn, they started making copies for people.

 

This thread makes me think of the note I received with the Wilco Engineer's Demos back in the day. I was asked not to copy the cd and pass it around - and I never did. But of course, someone did eventually.

[DAngerer09]

the hipinion leak thread is frightening

 

 

i just came across that place the other day. crazy!

[nodep5]

You may want to check out these books:

Heylin, Clinton. The Great White Wonders: The Story of Rock Bootlegs

Heylin, Clinton. Bootleg! The Rise & Fall of the Secret Recording Industry

 

I do know that in the case of some lost Black Crowes albums, Chris handed out tapes to people - and in turn, they started making copies for people.

 

This thread makes me think of the note I received with the Wilco Engineer's Demos back in the day. I was asked not to copy the cd and pass it around - and I never did. But of course, someone did eventually.

 

 

That Wilco story is the kind of thing I'm talking about. I mean, to give people copies saying don't duplicate is crazy. Not everyone is as stand up as you were about it and I think they have to know that. This whole issue has me torn at times. I think leaks and those who outright distribute are lame and wrong, especially of stuff that can be purchased. However I'm more fence post sitting on unreleased material that may never see the light of day, but somehow (unkown to anyone?) have become available. You are going to tell a die hard fan who has likely spent hundreds of dollars on a bands music and hundreds more on live shows to not access a bootleg of something that may never be officially released (but would be purchased if it ever was officially released) to not do this, especially when the band or label likely initiated the leak. Got me torn on this issue.

[dondoboy]

I feel kind of dirty now that I checked out that hipinion site. Not my mug o' beer.

[Synthesizer Patel]

I think leaks and those who outright distribute are lame and wrong, especially of stuff that can be purchased.

 

see my view on this is that without leaks of music i'd be unable to support as any people who are making good music as i do now. i certainly don't feel bad about downloading an album, finding out it is shit, and deleting it, because i eventually find an album i download and do like which i then purchase instead. so i'm rewarding good music, not bad. i've only got a certain ammount of money to spend per month on music - and normally i can find good stuff to purchase. that works out far better than me spending the same ammount of money, but getting bad music in return - actually i think that would have resulted in me giving up buying so much music long ago. as far as anyone else's motivation is concerned, that's up to them - this should at least show that leaked music isn't fundamentally bad by nature.

[isadorah]

However I'm more fence post sitting on unreleased material that may never see the light of day, but somehow (unkown to anyone?) have become available. You are going to tell a die hard fan who has likely spent hundreds of dollars on a bands music and hundreds more on live shows to not access a bootleg of something that may never be officially released (but would be purchased if it ever was officially released) to not do this, especially when the band or label likely initiated the leak. Got me torn on this issue.

 

think of it from an artist perspective, it might not necessarily be about the money and possible sales later. somethings get shelved because someone somewhere decided it wasn't suitable for release. sometimes it is because the artist didn't want it out there because it wasn't a good reflection of their artistic vision. someone gave me a leaked Patty Griffin album once that she had made and then shelved it because she didn't like the material. it really isn't that good and i can see why she didn't like it or want it to represent her as an artist. it happens in the visual arts all the time with retrospectives of the artists, every scrap and sketch that was ever made gets put out right next to the final paintings. really though, the artist made those things with the intention that they weren't for the public.

 

the thing i am torn about is when things are released postmortem. then the artist doesn't have any say in how their work is being presented, like the Johnny Cash recordings that were released after his death; or that Elvis song that someone redid for the Lilo and Stitch movie. I'm not so sure Elvis would have been down with that.

[lamradio]

I think it's premeditated for some, but others, some jerk with a promo copy leaks it. I have known of several people getting promo copies of albums several months before their release. Even this guy I used to know that worked at a record store, he used to get them all the time.. He could have easily leaked several albums, but chose not to.

[John Smith]

I got a well known CD from someone I knew in the press who was given a copy from somone else in the press who got their copy from the band for an advance review and because the writer was very tight with the band.

[Synthesizer Patel]

I got a well known CD from someone I knew in the press who was given a copy from somone else in the press who got their copy from the band for an advance review and because the writer was very tight with the band.

 

Hop On Pop?

 

 

 

 

 

(sorry)

[Analogman]

For One Night Illegally - The History of the Bootleg

 

Writer and broadcaster David Hepworth charts the story of secret recordings, artist out-takes and demo tapes that make up the world of bootleg recordings, from Bob Dylan's Great White Wonder in 1969 to the file sharing internet sites of the 21st century, via the Beatles, the Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Sex Pistols and Led Zeppelin.

 

David also talks to contemporary artists including Ryan Adams who have come to embrace the bootleggers, and hears from bootleggers of the 1960s and 70s who pitted their wits against security guards, the Feds and the record companies to get their unofficial releases out to the public.

 

A Bite Yer Legs production for BBC Radio 4.

[Calexico]

see my view on this is that without leaks of music i'd be unable to support as any people who are making good music as i do now. i certainly don't feel bad about downloading an album, finding out it is shit, and deleting it, because i eventually find an album i download and do like which i then purchase instead. so i'm rewarding good music, not bad. i've only got a certain ammount of money to spend per month on music - and normally i can find good stuff to purchase. that works out far better than me spending the same ammount of money, but getting bad music in return - actually i think that would have resulted in me giving up buying so much music long ago. as far as anyone else's motivation is concerned, that's up to them - this should at least show that leaked music isn't fundamentally bad by nature.

 

 

I agree with Joss Ackland. (Come on, it's not every day you can type something like that)

 

 

I eventually buy the stuff I really like and the stuff I don't, well, I don't waste money on it.

[Vacant Horizon]

I agree with Joss Ackland. (Come on, it's not every day you can type something like that)

 

 

I eventually buy the stuff I really like and the stuff I don't, well, I don't waste money on it.

 

 

well said. the record companies are experiencing a wake up call. most of the shit people download they would not buy in the first place. however, they might download something on a whim and actually dig it and go buy it, resulting in an otherwise unintentional purchase.

[tinnitus photography]

well said. the record companies are experiencing a wake up call. most of the shit people download they would not buy in the first place. however, they might download something on a whim and actually dig it and go buy it, resulting in an otherwise unintentional purchase.

 

i tend to agree w/ that sentiment, but totally random polls/threads i'd seen from Oink would imply that a large percentage of younger music fans are unrepentant in their defense of not buying anything, w/ a casual 'i'll buy a t-shirt at a show' justification...