Nowadays, a lot of information about celebrities and their personal lives are leaked, whether it is paparazzi pictures or even relatives selling details and stories to gossip magazines. They are constantly spied on throughout their careers, both personally and professionally. As a result, music leaks are simply a continuation of this invasion of privacy.
A music leak can be defined as an unauthorized release of music on the Internet. It can happen days or months before the initial release date. Although these leaks provide a deeper insight into a singer’s world, this access is usually not intended by the singer.
- How do music leaks occur?
Music leaks can happen through hacking. Hackers gain unauthorized access to an artist’s or record label’s servers, cloud storage or email accounts. Once they enter the system, the music files can be distributed online without the artist’s consent or knowledge.
In other cases, it can come from insider leaks. These leaks happen when individuals within the music industry intentionally or unintentionally share unreleased material. It could be because of employees, collaborators, or studio personnel.
Music can be stored in physical copies, such as CDs or USB drives. These copies can be stolen and displayed online afterwards. Artists can also store their unreleased music on personal devices, such as laptops, smartphones, or tablets. If the content were to fall into the wrong hands, it could result in leaks as well.
Sometimes, record labels unintentionally make unreleased material available on streaming platforms due to technical mistakes.
Furthermore, artists and record labels may have a weak digital security system in place to protect their material. This could be seen through a lack of encryption, weak passwords, etc.
- What are the potential benefits and disadvantages?
Unfinished or unreleased material becoming publicly accessible without permission has its pros and cons.
Some fans may like getting early access to unreleased music, as it creates excitement and anticipation.
Leaked songs can also generate discussion and buzz among the music community. That way, artists could benefit from the feedback coming from it and eventually make decisions accordingly.
Even though most of the time they aren’t planned, leaks might draw attention to an artist’s upcoming work and generate publicity. Therefore, leaks can serve as a form of promotion.
However, leaks often come at the expense of the artists. In the music industry, the artists and their teams plan every detail when it comes to music releases, including the timing, the narrative they want, etc. Unplanned leaks will undermine this control and can lead to unintended consequences, such as diminished excitement for the song or album’s official drop.
They can also result in financial losses for artists and their record labels as it may impact the future sales and revenue of the material’s official release.
The frustrating part of it would be that leaks may compromise a singer’s artistic vision. In 2023, Ariana Grande’s song “Fantasize” was leaked and went viral on TikTok. After asking people to stop spreading leaks, she wrote in a comment: “This is so disheartening. I was going to come back to this hook to use eventually”. In a way, leaks disrupt the artist’s final vision.
As a result, leaks can lead to a negative impact on an artist’s reputation as people could form their opinions based on an incomplete track.
Legally, leaking unreleased music without the artist’s or record label’s consent is a violation of copyright and intellectual property rights. Legal action can be pursued against the person or group responsible for the leak.
- Some examples of unreleased music becoming publicly accessible
Even the most famous singers are not safe from having their songs or albums being leaked before their official release, such as Britney Spears in 2004 or Eminem in 2009.
This was the case for Madonna’s album “Rebel Heart” in 2014. Several unfinished songs and demos were leaked online months before the official release. Her team had to adjust her promotional strategy and decided to release some finished tracks early. She also said in a statement “Please consider these six songs as an early Christmas gift”.
It also happened to Drake in 2016 when some tracks from his album “Views”, such as the famous “One Dance”, surfaced online earlier than expected.
In April 2022, Harry Styles’ complete album “Harry’s House” was leaked in its entirety. On Twitter (X), Sony Music, the parent company of Columbia Records, tried to discourage fans from listening to the content. This sparked a strong reaction from a portion of his fanbase, who urged others to refrain from accessing the leaks. Nevertheless, the album was officially launched a month later, on its scheduled date of May 20.
- Legal consequences
As a reminder, leaking music without prior consent is a violation of copyright and intellectual property rights.
Nonetheless, tracing the source of the leak and identifying the responsible seems to be a challenge. In that way, leakers often remain anonymous. If artists and record labels can prove who the responsible actually is, they may pursue legal action. Civil lawsuits may be pursued for damages related to unauthorized distribution. Although, when leaks involve illegal activities such as hacking, they can include criminal charges.
In Madonna’s case, she was extremely disappointed and frustrated over the leaks. However, no one was convicted, and no publicized legal actions were taken.
More recently, in 2023, the person who uploaded “Fantasize” by Ariana Grande on Spotify was fined 10,000$ (9200€) and will have to serve 48 hours of community service.
In the end, the overall impact of music leaks tends to be negative and is considered unethical. It will simply do more harm than good to the music industry.
Noor Rafouk
M2 Cyberjustice – Promotion 2023/24
#music #leaks #law #songs #singer
Sources :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_leak
