The Digital world provides infinite possibilities. As Jay-Z said “The Internet is like the wild, wild west. We need to write the new rules.“ The ability to receive and share data is limitless.
Recently, Drake “Drizzy” new album titled “Nothing was the same” was leaked about 9 days before the scheduled date of 24 Sept.
A number of artists have been accused in the past of leaking their own albums prior to the release date, as an aggressive marketing strategy. However, it still makes you wonder what kind of an impact “album leaks” may have on an artist? OR is any kind of publicity still good publicity in the world of Digital?
We know that ultimately Piracy results in major losses of revenue in any industry. There’s a lot of work that goes behind the production of most products including music, from the artist’s time in studio, to that very last person who ultimately delivers the cds to the music stores – all of this costs money.
Many artists, songwriters and producers gain their royalties and are still measured based on album sales. Illegal downloading has a devastating impact on their careers. Where do we draw the line, and most importantly how do we put this to an end??
Most links to Drakes new album were leaked on twitter. Many Twitterers welcomed this, some had mixed reactions.
Crazy!!! “@RevoltTV: #REVOLT News: @Drake And @S_C_ ‘Pound Cake’ Hits Net – http://t.co/YdKmcMLQT5”
— Diddy (@Diddy) September 16, 2013
The highs
https://twitter.com/petermejias/status/379609293030322176
The in-betweens (the lows)
Drake's album is so good I wanna write an apology letter to him saying sorry for downloading the leak.
— abels drug dealer (@TheKingScottyD) September 18, 2013
According to Risa (Recording Industry of South Africa), the South African music industry has also suffered tremendously due to piracy, which claims over R200 million in lost sales a year. RISA figures also indicate that about 3.6 million songs are unlawfully downloaded in South Africa every month, costing the recording industry about R18 million a month.
However, every illegal download steals the potential livelihood of thousands of people, and probably a trillion downloads can cause damage to an entire production company. It could also definitely affect us as individuals because downloading content opens up your computer to security breaches, such as malware, spyware and viruses – which are usually embedded in the download. Every time we download illegally from our computers and phones etc. we are stealing a piece of someone’s life. Think before you click! (STOP ILLEGAL DOWNLOADS).
DO YOU THINK ARTISTS DELIBERATELY LEAK THEIR OWN TRACKS? IF SO, WHY?
