When Eminem’s highly anticipated album, Relapse (Shady/Aftermath/Interscope, 2009) leaked late last week some 10 days before its May 19 release date, hardly anyone was surprised. After all, these days savvy Internet heads could care less about an album’s release date. Today, getting new music has nothing to do when an album is scheduled to hit stores (the ones that still exist, that is), and everything to do with when it actually hits the Net, usually days, if not weeks, before its actual hard release.
In VIBE’s June ’09 issue, we talked to three insiders to find out exactly how things like this happen, for a piece entitled “Leak Freak.” Here’s what they had to say.
Not all leaks are created equal. Someone is spilling your favorite songs onto the ’Net—before they’re ready. But how does it happen? From artists and record labels to hackers, studio engineers, and record pressing plants, there’s more than one way music “leaks.” Here, youheardthatnew.com super-blogger Nile “LowKey” Ivey, Juan “Play” Salinas of production duo Play-N-Skillz, and engineer/producer Graham Marsh track the process of leaking—and why some artists are warmly embracing the trend.
HOW IT SHOULD WORK
Step 1: Artist creates track in studio
Step 2: Track goes to engineer for mastering
Step 3: Track is approved by artist/producer to be sent to record label
Step 4: Producer/artist/manager e-mails track
Step 5: Record company sends approved album to printing plant to create CDs
Final Destination: Your hard drive
Go to page two to read how it leaks
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