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How do you not get an album leaked before release?

unlasciviousunlascivious 220 Posts
edited December 2005 in Strut Central
seriously - every single album that comes out seems to drop on the innanet before it's in shops or even before it's pressed up. i don't see how there are so many middlemen in the chain between the artist and the retail outlets that regardless of album demand both majors and indies are victims. don't get me wrong, i love the fact that i can easily access the music and i'll be the first one to download the music, but if this was you or someone you knew how could it even be remotely avoided or even delayed? would this even be a smart thing to do nowadays given the hypemachine possible benefits?
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  Comments

  • BrianBrian 7,618 Posts
    It's nearly impossible for an album to not leak a week or two in advance, but when it becomes a month or more before the actual product comes out, people tend not to buy it. There are so many different ways an album can get leaked that it's almost not worth doing anything about it.
  • mrmatthewmrmatthew 1,575 Posts
    Release it on Vinyl-Only. Vinyl Geeks are notoroiously lazy and no one is going to take the time and record from vinyl to digital and then post it up on some free "yousendit" type thing . Make it harder to hear/get and people will want it all the more.
  • planlessplanless 819 Posts
    Release it on Vinyl-Only. Vinyl Geeks are notoroiously lazy and no one is going to take the time and record from vinyl to digital

    completly wrong
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    Release it on Vinyl-Only. Vinyl Geeks are notoroiously lazy and no one is going to take the time and record from vinyl to digital and then post it up on some free "yousendit" type thing . Make it harder to hear/get and people will want it all the more.

    That's not a bad idea except:

    1) Don't expect your album to get reviewed by anyone.

    2) All it takes is one person to actually care enough to digitize it and post it and then it's .

    I still think an annoying promo-bot goes a long way to discouraging bootlegging.
  • unlasciviousunlascivious 220 Posts
    a week or two is completely reasonable since the album is usually in the hands of retail outlets by then and that's basically fair game. would sending promos at the point of shipment be a bad idea (aka promoting the album to reviewers only a week or two before the drop date)? it would affect the weekly soundscan numbers, but it shouldn't technically affect overall sales.
  • unlasciviousunlascivious 220 Posts
    odub,
    how far in advance do you usually receive promos?
  • BrianBrian 7,618 Posts
    a week or two is completely reasonable since the album is usually in the hands of retail outlets by then and that's basically fair game. would sending promos at the point of shipment be a bad idea (aka promoting the album to reviewers only a week or two before the drop date)? it would affect the weekly soundscan numbers, but it shouldn't technically affect overall sales.
    a week or two is definitely not enough time for promos. that's where the problem lies. you can send your album out for reviews a month before but shit gets leaked anyway. no real way to win.

    a simple solution i thought of for tracking down leaks with promos would be to mark each copy with a sound unique to its own copy so if/when the promo leaks, you can at least tell who leaked it and take whatever action from there
  • Imperial_MaoImperial_Mao 1,119 Posts


    a simple solution i thought of for tracking down leaks with promos would be to mark each copy with a sound unique to its own copy so if/when the promo leaks, you can at least tell who leaked it and take whatever action from there

    Some of the big labels now are tagging individual promo cd's, so if they get uploaded to the net they can trace where it was sent too. My Kano cd was marked like this...Big Brother Is Watching You...Think Pure Thoughts...
  • unlasciviousunlascivious 220 Posts
    brilliant idea, but manufacturing would be virtually impossible since different plate molds would need to be made for each disc. if promos were limited to under 50 in number you could manually burn each unique disc. of course, the greater the number of promos, the more difficult this becomes.
  • BrianBrian 7,618 Posts
    brilliant idea, but manufacturing would be virtually impossible since different plate molds would need to be made for each disc. if promos were limited to under 50 in number you could manually burn each unique disc. of course, the greater the number of promos, the more difficult this becomes.
    it would take an intern less than an hour to tag each promo and however long to burn shit. surely a few hours of creating unique promos is worth the amount in "loss of sales."
  • GrafwritahGrafwritah 4,184 Posts
    I still think an annoying promo-bot goes a long way to discouraging bootlegging.

    Definition?
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    a week or two is completely reasonable since the album is usually in the hands of retail outlets by then and that's basically fair game. would sending promos at the point of shipment be a bad idea (aka promoting the album to reviewers only a week or two before the drop date)? it would affect the weekly soundscan numbers, but it shouldn't technically affect overall sales.

    I don't know how far in advance retail stores need stuff but even a week is long enough for a leak to cause damage.

    As for advance promos, if you're talking about a magazine review, it's normally THREE MONTHS.

    That's a big reason why, besides watermarking advances, a lot of big labels won't even release an advance. Instead, they host a listening session where the writer is expected to review the album based on a one-time-through session, usually there with other writers. Personally, I think it's wack as fuck and too many magazines are complying. They should just say, "either we get the advance, or you don't get the review" but of course, these days, I feel like mags need the artists more than the other way around.

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    I still think an annoying promo-bot goes a long way to discouraging bootlegging.

    Definition?

    Graf,

    You can hear the promo-bot on the Dilla download. IT's basically a recording that punches in every song or two that goes, "THIS IS FOR PROMOTIONAL USE ONLY!!!"

    Some rap artists have gotten pretty creative with this...De La Soul, with "Buhloone Mind State" were one of the first who practically made a game out of their promo-bot, using donkey brays and that "Guido" dude saying, "Freakin...lick 'em." Shit was so funny some reviewers though that's how the album was supposed to sound. It was De La, after all.

    These days, Definitive Jux and Stonesthrow both heavily promo-bot their advances.
  • unlasciviousunlascivious 220 Posts
    fuck an intern, you could easily program virtually inaudible frequencies and levels of audio on the cd making it completely unknown to the listener. that's where the big brother promo sticker is needed.

    patent pending.
  • unlasciviousunlascivious 220 Posts
    DO-WE-DO-WE-DO-WE-DO-WE DONUTS.... promo

    to be honest, i'd be kind of sad if that wasn't on the final release at least once.
  • BrianBrian 7,618 Posts
    I don't know how far in advance retail stores need stuff but even a week is long enough for a leak to cause damage.
    I think for large releases with a marketing budget, any kind of leak is bad, but for smaller releases that have not been promoted well, leaks could be good.
  • Imperial_MaoImperial_Mao 1,119 Posts
    brilliant idea, but manufacturing would be virtually impossible since different plate molds would need to be made for each disc. if promos were limited to under 50 in number you could manually burn each unique disc. of course, the greater the number of promos, the more difficult this becomes.

    It isn't impossible, this is the quote from the back of the track listing...

    "This promotional cd is unique and traceable.Warner Music is able to monitor its use and identify the source of any unauthorised copies."



  • GrafwritahGrafwritah 4,184 Posts
    You can hear the promo-bot on the Dilla download. IT's basically a recording that punches in every song or two that goes, "THIS IS FOR PROMOTIONAL USE ONLY!!!"

    Ahhhh. Have they considered using Funkmaster Flex or DJ Clue? I find that their obnoxious random screaming tends to make songs unlistenable for more than 15 or 20 seconds.

    I understand though. I'm more familiar with it on promo VHS and DVDs where they either run "Promo only" stuff across the bottom... or a more creative one was on the Rounders promo, where ever 10 minutes or so they would flip the scene to black and white only for about a minute.
  • GrafwritahGrafwritah 4,184 Posts
    fuck an intern, you could easily program virtually inaudible frequencies and levels of audio on the cd making it completely unknown to the listener. that's where the big brother promo sticker is needed.

    That a good idea.

    Except it would take about 30 seconds in CoolEdit to strip out all inaudible frequencies, and then you're back to square one.
    I do it all the time to strip out low end rumble that would be below any instrument (although still audible in that case).

    A different tactic would be to perhaps insert audio that is cancelled out between the two channels but still identifiable on the track.

    Or even better, just drop in a millisecond of static but use the wave pattern to identify the CD.
  • BrianBrian 7,618 Posts
    There's a million different ways that they could tag promos but all of them aren't very time consuming at all. Does anyone know if labels send out NDAs or whatever the fuck they're called with the promos and if they do, does anyone know if something like that would actually be binding or not?
  • unlasciviousunlascivious 220 Posts
    if you didn't know it was there, you didn't know where it would be, and you couldn't easily hear it the method of protection would be insignificant.

    ayo?
  • unlasciviousunlascivious 220 Posts
    there's no reason why the person couldn't be held accountable.
    as odub said, if the magazines are dependent upon the artists then why would a release form be out of the question?
  • DORDOR Two Ron Toe 9,905 Posts
    I can remember being offered DATs up to 6 months in some cases in advanced.
    But I never wanted to get into that game.

    Don't want things to get leaked? Do shit like prince. Though, once the stuff gets to the label. It's totally out in the open.
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    there's no reason why the person couldn't be held accountable.
    as odub said, if the magazines are dependent upon the artists then why would a release form be out of the question?

    In any case, it's usually not a writer leaking an advance: it's more likely some middle-man in the studio who can cash in some chingo bling and not have shit traced back to him.
  • mylatencymylatency 10,475 Posts
    Release it on Vinyl-Only. Vinyl Geeks are notoroiously lazy and no one is going to take the time and record from vinyl to digital and then post it up on some free "yousendit" type thing . Make it harder to hear/get and people will want it all the more.

    The White Stripes did this with "Elephant" or something and it was recorded from vinyl to mp3 in a matter of days I think.

    hi guys

    I know Def Jux and Stones Throw both do a good job of releasing a promo version chock full of annoying drops but hey it helps promote the album and yah.
  • DORDOR Two Ron Toe 9,905 Posts
    Release it on Vinyl-Only. Vinyl Geeks are notoroiously lazy and no one is going to take the time and record from vinyl to digital and then post it up on some free "yousendit" type thing . Make it harder to hear/get and people will want it all the more.

    The White Stripes did this with "Elephant" or something and it was recorded from vinyl to mp3 in a matter of days I think.

    hi guys

    I know Def Jux and Stones Throw both do a good job of releasing a promo version chock full of annoying drops but hey it helps promote the album and yah.

    It may sound ok. But it's still not a 100% direct digital copy. Like you would get from a CD.

    They should just send out promo CD's direct to DJ's with the DJ's name right at the beginning of the track.

    Here's something sad...

    http://toronto.craigslist.org/emd/119423793.html
  • PEKPEK 735 Posts
    brilliant idea, but manufacturing would be virtually impossible since different plate molds would need to be made for each disc. if promos were limited to under 50 in number you could manually burn each unique disc. of course, the greater the number of promos, the more difficult this becomes.

    It isn't impossible, this is the quote from the back of the track listing...

    "This promotional cd is unique and traceable.Warner Music is able to monitor its use and identify the source of any unauthorised copies."

    Pretty sure the Atlantic Little Brother advance/review copies were tagged as such as well w/ the recipient's name stamped on the face of the disc...
  • jaymackjaymack 5,199 Posts
    there's no way to prevent leaking, but how about releasing the promo in garbage quality. make it sound like a disc burnt from 96 or 64 kpbs mp3s.
  • unlasciviousunlascivious 220 Posts
    it could deter reviewers and downloaders from purchasing the album.
    it would be an inaccurate representation of the content, but it would probably work too.
  • hsulu_nationhsulu_nation 110 Posts
    Yeah, promo copies of the White Stripes' 'Elephant' came out on vinyl. Which was very cool, only it became a pain in the ass to listen to it when you weren't at home, so people digitized it within a day or two anyway. I'm not sure why--was demand really that great?--but B.G.'s 'Livin' Legend' was promo'd on cassette.

    I don't know any credible writers who leak their promos early, and I think major label paranoia about this is ridiculous. Labels should focus less attention on building the perfect promo mousetrap and more on that shady intern in the studio hovering over those unmastered Ebony Eyez tracks. That said, in some cases I'm not sure major labels actually truly honestly care that much about albums getting leaked too far in advance.
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