Have you ever wondered how CDs which are supposed to be under lock and key somehow find their way onto P2P sharing services days, weeks, or sometimes even months before the official release date? The music industry has often blamed people working at the manufacturing plants or “thieves” who “find an unsecured copy of a CD sitting on somebody’s desk”, but, as Adrienne Day of New York magazine discovered, leaks often come from those who are closest to the music – people working at labels and journalists who are sent advance music in order to have time to listen before a deadline.
I had this discussion on the Blind Melon message board after demo tracks from the band’s forthcoming album found their way onto Oink, and then other download sites, back in October. I argued that the band – or at least somebody in the band – put those songs out there, especially given the fact that nobody even knew they were there until one of the band members mentioned in an interview that he had “heard” that the new album was on Oink. The band never publicly admitted putting anything out there, but considering that two of the guys run the studio where all the new material was recorded, and that the band has yet to sign with a label, it would be pretty odd if these demos ended up in the hands of somebody other than a band member who then through them up for people to download.
