Forthcoming second album “Congratulations” appears on BitTorrent tracker sites everywhere well ahead of its official April 13th release date, and unable to respond by offering it as a free download decides to stream it on its website instead.
MGMT is the latest band to discover the instant distribution power of BitTorrent. Several days ago the psychedelic rock band’s forthcoming second album “Congratulations” appeared on BitTorrent tracker sites everywhere well ahead of its official April 13th release date.
“Hey everybody, the album leaked, and we wanted you to be able to hear it from us,” says the band on its website.
It apparently wanted to respond by offering the album as a free download, perhaps in the vein of Radiohead and ask for donation, but instead had to settle for a free streaming of the album.
“We wanted to offer it as a free download but that didn’t make sense to anyone but us,” it adds.
In a music world which even the RIAA admits is increasingly going digital, it’s only natural that more and more of these types of pre-release leaks will occur. Sooner or later bands will have to realize that digital music means you can instantly distribute your album to the entire world, and that waiting for an arbitrary physical release date will only risk your chances of being able to deliver it on your own terms.
Last month U2 experienced what it’s like when their album “No Line On the the Horizon,” and just before that Broken Bells did as well when their self-titled album also appeared on BitTorrent.
Stay tuned.
most of the time i think its the record company or the band themselves as some of these people i have never even heard of and i don’t let my son dl music as that is just asking for trouble, movies sometimes as we buy what we dl but usally at a reduce price as most dvd are way to high. i can affford it but i just am not gonna buy cage a new castle or one of the others a new crib as enough is enough.
Interesting cover, it looks like a little creature surfing out of a cat’s mouth, and it’s a wave too.
I listened to it all at their site and thought it was interesting, and I like bands like Animal Collective, and trance music, so psych sounds have an appeal.
I think a great thing to do is to challenge yourself with music and listen to types that you might not think you’d like. As a younger pup I started with pop, but with parents and then friends who were all into music I heard different sounds.
Plus Pittsburgh had some great radio stations like WAMO and WYEP that played a variety.
downloaded it listened for 2 minutes, deleted. not my type of music.
guys at sony music should be more careful, or maybe it is a clever marketing ploy, it worked because i never know what other albums are coming out by other bands ive never heard of.
You would think if this is such a serious issue they would guard their intellectual property better before release. No one but them have the copies before sale, so its just a matter of restricting who has access and keeping track of copies. Yet these big acts still have their work leaked. They are either incompetent or they are doing it on purpose. Either way its their own faults if their albums leak.