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I received a press release last night about The Verve’s new album. It told the name and tracklist for the record. All well and good. But this is what caught my eye:
The Verve have not only LEAKED THE FIRST SINGLE from their forthcoming album this week, “Love Is Noise”, but they’ve also now given the record the title of ‘Forth’ and revealed the tracklisting (bold/italics/caps added by me).
If you have an official single from an album, and your label has OKed its release to the public through MySpace (they’re on a major label, after all, so without their consent, it’d be no dice), then it’s not a leak. Is it?
This isn’t just limited to The Verve’s PR folks, either. I’ve seen this terminology used a few other places. I’m not sure if it’s the legitimate evolution of language — i.e. anything released before the album is now considered “leaked,” official or not — or if it’s just a marketing ploy built on the assumption that music-loving Joe Twelve-Pack is a complete moron who can be easily duped. Most marketing ploys built by sneaky PR firms and major labels are based on that assumption, after all.
Thoughts? Snarky comments? Hilarious non sequiturs?
They’re trying to be viral. It’s what all these whippersnappers are into nowadays.
Released, Leaked, Sharted… what’s difference? Most of it’s crap anyway!
It’s probably a ploy by the record label to write off every MySpace play as lost revenue for their taxes. Maybe its to mark it as loss so they can continue to make money while still claiming they are in the red.
People are stupid.
Isn’t MTV’s advance-preview music page called The Leak?
I think it’s a way for an older generation to try and adapt to new terminology and word usage. Kind of like how my parents refer to all digital music files — and digital music players, for that matter — as “mp3s.”
I work with a lot of older (30-60’s) and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked “what’s the difference between an iPod and an MP3 player.”
i remember when stuff used to really be leaked. that was neat b/c you felt like you had a leg up on everyone else. then when the cd came out, depending on your ethics or monetary disposition, you bought or downloaded it because you already knew it was good. as for this verve leak, yeah PR is dumb. i work as a graphic designer for a hospital and every day i feel like i’m selling out my creativity for money to pay back my loans. it stinks. so hey buzzgrinder, need any graphic designers?
i would still prefer getting a pre-release, and then buying the album when it comes out (compared to listening to a low bitrate, streaming version online).
albums “leaks” as marketing ploys? that’s…annoying.