Feb 18, 2016

 

Feb 18, 2016

Hey everyone.

I've been in the music collecting game for a while. Started as a kid buying LPs, cassettes, and CDs, like a lot of you. Leaks have always happened. Used to be studio tapes/CDs got passed around and traded. Things were a lot easier to control back then. Because you physically owned the rarities, you could essentially hold on to a goldmine of unreleased stuff as long as you were careful with it. Years ago I traded some autographed Freddie Mercury merch for a unique Jay-Z tape (unfinished studio takes). I was told to not make any copies of the tape, because if I did they'd know where it came from, my source would get in deep s---, and I'd be black-balled from the "circle". You'd be amazed at the kind of stuff some people still have from the tape trading era, just sitting in storage.

The internet changed everything about collecting. Most stuff now is sourced digitally, so there are opportunities at every turn for stuff to get out. Sometimes it's just as simple as someone losing their phone, and bam. Leaks galore. Sometimes it's a hacked email account. Some artists and their camp still use CDs when taking studio session material with them to keep a handle on it. I've had rare leaks on original studio CDs before they were leaked/released in the past. How? I knew artist's manager and they trusted me. Smart collectors don't rip anything they plan on keeping to themselves. That s--- stayed on those CDs and off my computer. (Edit: Rereading this, I didn't mean to make sound like there's some secret leak trading society. Sometimes you just get lucky with who you meet or where your friends end up. I'm not some high roller or anything.)

Digital content is harder though. It's so easy to send something to your friend, or copy it to their hard drive. Unless the music is tagged for leaks, there's little accountability. "I'm gonna give you something, don't send it to anyone!" is much harder to stick to when "copy, paste" is so easy and tempting to do. The hardest thing about leaks is that sometimes they're so exciting and you want to share with everyone, but you don't want to be the reason someone's a--- is on the line.

So to the question, "Where do leaks come from?!" The answer isn't that simple. They can happen from any point in recording, and any point after. Some come from tape, some come from CD, some come from hard drives, etc. Anyway, I wrote way more than I meant to. Hope that at least helps some people understand the culture. I'll stick around and answer a few questions if I can, not that I'm someone high up any ladders. I just love music.

PS - No, I don't have the Jay-Z tape anymore. It's long been traded off.

 

Feb 18, 2016

ok gramps