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The Rush to Beat the Hackers
Imagine getting a frantic call from your label at 3 AM because your album just hit Discord servers. That’s exactly what happened to dozens of artists in recent years, forcing them to scramble like never before. Drake makes a surprise release of a trio of tracks through his alternate Instagram account, @plottttwistttttt, on Friday, August 23, 2024. The release came weeks after the first three leaked songs came out earlier in the month. Instead of carefully planned rollouts that used to take months, artists now find themselves in a constant race against time. Labels have completely transformed their strategies, with some projects getting pushed up by weeks or even months just to stay ahead of the leak game. 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. It’s like playing musical chairs, but with million-dollar albums on the line.
The Birth of Underground Fan Economies
What started as simple file sharing has evolved into something that looks more like a Wall Street trading floor than a fan community. Juice WRLD fans alone have spent nearly six hundred thousand dollars on leaks, all in the space of just three years. These aren’t just casual listeners – they’re superfans who’ve created their own economies around unreleased music. The numbers are staggering when you consider that some fans pay more for a single leaked song than they would for a concert ticket. Generally speaking, most of the sales are group-bought because not a lot of people have thousands of dollars to spend on songs. All of these sales happen on [messenger app] Discord. The links get spread through Instagram pages or LEAKTH.IS and then fans all jump in and start to put together the money for the song. It’s created a bizarre situation where artists’ most dedicated fans are the ones funding their own musical theft.
Security Measures That Would Make the CIA Jealous
Studios today look nothing like they did five years ago. One common strategy is to employ strict confidentiality agreements and non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with everyone involved in the production process, including producers, engineers, and studio personnel. These agreements legally bind individuals to keep any unreleased music confidential and impose penalties for breaches of these agreements. We’re talking about encrypted hard drives, biometric scanners, and NDAs that are thicker than most album liner notes. Watermarking and track identification systems can be embedded in the recordings, making leaked tracks easily traceable back to their source. This acts as a deterrent, as individuals leaking music can be identified and held accountable for their actions. Some artists have gone so far as to record multiple versions of the same song with different lyrics, making it impossible for leakers to know which version is the “real” one. It’s like musical espionage, and everyone’s a potential spy.
When Leaks Become Marketing Gold
Here’s where things get really interesting – some artists have figured out how to turn leaks into their advantage. After fans heard the latest rollout of Drake’s unreleased songs, many took to social media to call him out for seemingly testing his new songs on social media before releasing them. An X user claimed that leaking the songs made it seem like the singer was “scared of public opinion.” “The way he’s going about dropping these songs makes it look like he’s scared of public opinion so he has to leak and see if we fw it,” a fan on X commented. It’s like having a free focus group, but one that’s willing to pay thousands of dollars for the privilege of being test subjects. Artists like Playboi Carti have mastered this art, letting tracks “accidentally” slip out to gauge fan reactions before committing to official releases. The line between leak and marketing strategy has become so blurred that fans can’t tell the difference anymore.
The Million-Dollar Mistake
When Frank Ocean’s “Blonde” sessions leaked, it wasn’t just about artistic integrity – it was about cold, hard cash. In 2024, Spotify alone paid out $10 billion to the music industry—more than any single company has ever contributed in one year. With streaming revenues reaching unprecedented heights, every leaked track represents potential millions in lost revenue. The math is simple but brutal: if a song leaks and gets millions of plays on unofficial platforms, those streams never convert to actual income for the artist. 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. It’s like watching your paycheck get stolen in real-time, one play at a time.
The Rise of Digital Mob Mentality
Social media has transformed leaked music into a cultural phenomenon that spreads faster than wildfire. The Instagram leak community is pretty big: if someone has an unreleased Playboi Carti song they’ll get hundreds of views on their Instagram lives, but all the main source of original information comes from LEAKTH.IS. It’s created a new type of social currency where being the first to share a leak makes you internet famous for fifteen minutes. Hashtags like “#FreeTheWave” for Young Thug’s Slime Season 3 have become rallying cries that unite fans across the globe. On communal leaking hubs like the RapLeaks subreddit or LEAKTH.IS, you can find a demographic of predominantly white male teens sharing and debating the latest unauthorised releases found on YouTube and SoundCloud. These are people who love the thrill of hunting down new music and compiling spreadsheets that painstakingly track every unreleased song in an artist’s discography. The hunt has become as exciting as the music itself, turning fans into detectives and creating communities built around shared secrets.
Courtroom Drama and Legal Warfare
The legal battles surrounding leaks have become as dramatic as any Hollywood movie. In November 2024, Drake initiated a legal petition against Universal Music Group (UMG), the parent company of Republic Records, with whom Drake has a recording contract, and Spotify, alleging they conspired to artificially inflate the number of streams of the diss track “Not Like Us” during Drake’s feud with Kendrick Lamar earlier that year by implementing pay-to-play schemes, malicious bots, and other tactics. Drake withdrew the petition on January 14, 2025, and filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York a day later, alleging defamation against UMG for promoting “Not Like Us”. Artists are suing everyone from hackers to their own collaborators, creating a legal maze that costs millions to navigate. Infringement claims can arise when an individual shares or distributes unreleased tracks without permission. This act can violate the copyright holder’s exclusive rights, potentially leading to lawsuits demanding monetary compensation or injunctions to prevent further distribution. The legal landscape is filled with examples where leaks have prompted artists to take legal action to reclaim control over their work. It’s turned the music industry into a battlefield where lawyers are as important as producers.
The Crowdfunding Revolution
Who knew that music fans would become venture capitalists? Leak groupbuys regularly raise upwards $5,000 for a track and the money ends up in a hacker’s pocket. The “group buy” culture has created a twisted version of Kickstarter where fans pool their money to buy stolen music. On Sunday, members of a Discord server called “Groupbuys” raised $1,250 on CashApp and Venmo to buy an unreleased song by Lil Uzi Vert. On Sunday, members of a Discord server called “Groupbuys” raised $1,250 on CashApp and Venmo to buy an unreleased song by Lil Uzi Vert. Usually, the free voice and text messaging app is used to discuss video games, but the members of this Discord server — which number over one thousand as of this writing — had one goal in mind: get their hands on unreleased music. One of the largest confirmed group buys was for the unreleased Jay Electronica album Act II: The Patents of Nobility (The Turn), which sold for roughly $9,000. It’s like a perverse form of fan funding where supporters pay criminals instead of artists.
Trust Issues and Broken Relationships
The paranoia has reached levels that would make Cold War spies proud. Artists who once freely collaborated with producers and engineers now treat every session like a potential security breach. Some of these fans are crazy and go on as if they know the artists personally. I don’t know these rappers personally so I don’t really feel for them. Put it this way: I won’t be losing sleep over leaking an artist’s music. The quote from a 17-year-old leaker shows just how casual the betrayal has become. The new leak culture has created undoubtedly adversarial relationships between these artists and their most die-hard fans. Artists have fired longtime collaborators, ended partnerships, and even changed their entire creative process because they can’t trust anyone anymore. It’s turned the music industry into a place where your biggest fans might also be your worst enemies.
Vault Music Becomes the New Norm
Labels have discovered that yesterday’s leaks are today’s gold mines. 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. Pop Smoke’s posthumous albums are perfect examples of how labels now strategically release previously leaked material to maximize profits. For instance, according to a Complex Article from January 2020, at the time of Juice Wrld’s death, the rapper had roughly 2,000 unreleased songs. Obviously, many of these will never reach the ears of every listener, but enthusiasts can find a person close to the late creator who can sell them the song. It’s created a bizarre aftermarket where labels compete with criminals to monetize the same content. The vault has become a treasure chest that both sides are racing to unlock.
The Digital Watermark Arms Race
Producers have become musical forensic experts, embedding invisible fingerprints in every beat. By encrypting music files, artists and labels can protect their unreleased material from being accessed by unauthorized individuals. This encryption can prevent hackers or those with nefarious intentions from obtaining the music and leaking it to the public. Metro Boomin’s producer tags aren’t just for show anymore – they’re digital breadcrumbs that can trace leaks back to their source. Digital watermarking and encryption tools offer artists the ability to track and control the distribution of their music. Services like TuneCore and Songtrust provide digital management solutions, enabling artists to monitor where and how their music is used, even before its official release. These tools help in managing rights and detecting unauthorized use or leaks. It’s like having a GPS tracker on every song, but hackers are getting smarter at removing these digital fingerprints. The technology race never ends.
The Death of Physical Promos
Remember when labels used to send out promotional CDs to radio stations and journalists? Those days are long gone. The most famous leak circulated in 2000, when Lars Ulrich became aware of a leaked demo for Metallica’s “I Disappear” playing on several radio stations around the country. The leak was eventually traced back to Napster, and the Metallica v. Napster, Inc. legal battle was born. The case rose to national prominence with Ulrich becoming an outspoken defender of artists whose work had been illegally distributed for free. After M.I.A.’s “Borders” leaked from a promo copy, the industry realized that physical media was too risky. Now, everything happens through encrypted streaming platforms with limited-time access. These measures include stringent access controls, multi-factor authentication, and data encryption to ensure that only authorized personnel have access to unreleased music. Furthermore, streaming platforms have established comprehensive security protocols to minimize the risk of leaks. Regular security audits are conducted to identify and address vulnerabilities in the system. The romantic days of getting a CD in the mail are over – it’s all about digital security now.
The Surprise Drop Phenomenon
Beyoncé didn’t just change how albums are released – she created a survival strategy. More recent, “Stupid Love” — the first single from Lady Gaga’s seventh studio LP — leaked three weeks before it was due. Gaga’s team was made aware of the leak, but chose to charge ahead, releasing the single when it was due along with the accompanying music video. The surprise release has become the industry’s favorite weapon against leakers. Taylor Swift’s folklore and evermore albums were kept so secret that even her own team didn’t know about them until days before release. When Kanye West’s “The College Dropout” leaked, he took it as a challenge, re-imagining several of the tracks and cutting two out of the final album. He later adopted this strategy in 2016’s “The Life of Pablo,” recording multiple versions of his singles, so those looking to leak his music had no means of knowing the final version. It’s turned album releases into guerrilla warfare, where secrecy is more valuable than any marketing campaign.
The Hacker Economy
There’s a whole underground economy built around stolen music that most people never see. Now, hackers can earn up to twenty thousand dollars per song, which is made significantly more economical with the creation of crowdfunding platforms. He told us over the phone how he makes thousands of dollars selling unreleased music. These aren’t just teenage hackers in their bedrooms – they’re organized criminals running sophisticated operations. 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. It’s like a black market for music where Rihanna’s Anti leaks can fund someone’s entire lifestyle. The most successful leakers are making more money than some signed artists.
Shortened Album Cycles and Creative Chaos
Artists used to have the luxury of taking years to perfect their sound. Now they’re forced to work at breakneck speed to stay ahead of the leaks. An entire album recorded by Kanye West was leaked on Discord on Sunday, May 18. The album reportedly contained tracks that are to be included in his upcoming album, WW3. Chance the Rapper completely revamped The Big Day after multiple tracks leaked, showing how leaks can derail entire creative processes. The pressure to constantly release new material has fundamentally changed how artists approach their craft. We live in a culture of seeking instant gratification, and that has formed a cohort of music fans whose impatience will not allow them to wait and hear music the way the artist intended. Instead of carefully crafted album experiences, we’re getting more scattered releases and constant updates. It’s like trying to build a house while people are stealing your blueprints.
The Unfinished Song Problem
Nothing hurts an artist’s reputation like having their rough demos exposed to the world. Almost every song on the album has an “- Unfinished” next to the track title, another reminder that even if fans get a hold of leaks, attach their identities to them and hold onto them for a long time, in the eyes of the artist, the music is eternally unfinished until they return to finish it – if they ever do. When early versions of Kanye’s Yeezus leaked, fans heard unmixed vocals and placeholder lyrics that were never meant for public consumption. 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. It’s like showing up to a job interview in your pajamas – first impressions matter, and leaked demos can damage an artist’s carefully crafted image forever. The internet never forgets, especially when it comes to embarrassing rough
Besides founding Festivaltopia, Luca is the co founder of trib, an art and fashion collectiv you find on several regional events and online. Also he is part of the management board at HORiZONTE, a group travel provider in Germany.
