The Virtual Unreleased Music Industry

Music leaks have been around for years, even before the internet came into existence. Since the first bootleg album in 1969, a compilation of recording sessions from Bob Dylan titled by hackers as “Great White Wonder,” the world of leaks has become more and more important to the music industry, especially since the birth of the internet. In the early 2000s, the virtual leak industry was truly born, as people got a hold of unreleased music by hacking into press releases of albums that would be sent out a few weeks before the official releases, storing them on websites such as Napster. Napster would eventually be sued by Metallica, as a leaked song became so popular it ended up on radio stations; a few years later, Napster officially went bankrupt. However, with the invention of new websites such as Discord, SoundCloud, and YouTube, the leaked music industry has only grown in size and significance, but to truly understand how it has grown to such prominence we have to understand the basics. 

So, what exactly is a leak? A leak is an unofficial release of a piece of music by an inside or outside source. An inside source could be anyone from a producer, the artist themselves, or even the labels themselves to promote a song prior to its release, while outside sources are mainly hackers. Leaks have a long history, with most considered to be the work of several groups of hackers who race each other to be the first to release new music to fans. At first, people would leak songs for the fun of it, usually hacking and then releasing the music for nothing, but that stance has drastically changed today. Now, hackers can earn up to twenty thousand dollars per song, which is made significantly more economical with the creation of crowdfunding platforms. 

So, how do hackers get their hands on unreleased songs? An unnamed hacker explained how hackers gain access to unreleased music in an interview with Genius. Hackers will go through large data breaches until they find a producer or manager’s information. They will then hack into the producer or manager’s laptops, where they can take tens of hundreds of songs at a time. Finally, they will go to platforms such as LEAKTH.IS or Discord, offering songs to the highest bidder. The person with the winning bid can either decide to keep the song for themselves or leak it to everyone for free, something hackers occasionally do themselves. The most prominent artists who have had their music leaked are Kanye West, Juice WRLD, XXXTentacion, Playboi Carti, Lil Uzi Vert, and many more. Juice WRLD fans alone have spent nearly six hundred thousand dollars on leaks, all in the space of just three years. But what has been the cost of their songs, or even projects, leaking?

Usually, artists push projects or songs back as a result of leaks, however, there can be additional financial implications for artists. Artists can lose out on large amounts of money as if the song has already been heard by the majority of fans it can decrease the hype of the song and project significantly, causing there to be less listener traffic heading to their newest releases. However, there are, of course, different songs that have not been affected by being leaked prior to their release. For example, “Stay” by The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber leaked prior to its release and would go on to be one of the hottest songs in 2021. Additionally, songs such as “Blueberry Faygo” by Lil Mosey, “Already Dead” by Juice WRLD, and “Just Wanna Rock” by Lil Uzi Vert, have all gone on to have incredible success despite leaking earlier on, with “Already Dead” being leaked four years before its release and still debuting at number two on the charts. So do artists like leaks? It's a topic many are split on, with those such as Drake supporting them while others such as the families of Mac Miller and Juice WRLD believe it is an incredibly harmful act to an artist's hard work. 

The leaked music industry is an intriguing one, with fans paying thousands of dollars for a song that could easily release in the future, just to get it a few months early. All the way from the first bootleg in 1969, to the hundreds of thousands of leaks shared on social platforms in 2022, it's incredible to see how lucrative the business of leaks has become. Today, law enforcement has taken precautions to make sure it is more difficult for hackers to gain access to songs while also making the punishment for hackers more severe. However, with advancements in technology made every day, these efforts make barely a dent in the world of a hacker. As recently as late October, hundreds of Juice WRLD songs leaked despite many not being anywhere near the final stages of their production. At the end of the day, leakers, and the leak community, are here to stay whether we like it or not. The business is far too lucrative for it to be stopped during its peak, and it’s something that will continue for years to come.

By Luke Birch