A lot can happen over the weekend, but just like us we imagine you’re pretty busy over the weekend attending gigs, hanging out with friends, and generally chilling out. But sometimes, important things do happen. So every Monday morning we’ll be delivering to you the best of what you missed over the weekend, so you can continue to enjoy your time off.
Kanye West’s Album Leaks Early, Distracts By Leaking Baby
Look, Kanye West can be a bit of a tool. But the fact remains that the man knows how to make great music, and his latest effort, the appropriately named Yeezus is most likely one of the most anticipated releases so far this year. That is, it was until someone leaked in online four days early.
Originally set to drop on June 18th, if you do a bit of digging online you’ll find quite a few copies of the album floating around the internet. It isn’t immediately clear who leaked the album online yet, but Def Jam – Kanye West’s record label – are said to be furious. The label even have an entire division for leaks management and they’ve whipped into overdrive with damage control.
Of course, the album is still expected to sell by the bucket load, but the leak is especially damaging given the extraordinary lengths Def Jam went to to keep the album out of the prying hands of fans. According to sources, West’s camp took notes from leaks of tracks off his previous album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, in 2010, and used that information to try and keep the album in lock down.
Firstly, no tracks were allowed to be sent via digital services or email. West also decided to set up his own temporary studios in hotel room and other out of the way locations, rather than entrusting the staff at regular studios.
Kanye keeps works-in-progress tracks on password-protected external hard drives that are locked away in briefcases like they contain the secret code to an international spy network. He also made sure that Yeezus was mastered only a week before release to keep the window for final recordings to fall into the wrong hands as brief as possible.
But apparently somewhere, someone got their hands on to a copy that shouldn’t have the the inevitable has happened. Regardless of the leak, analysts still believe that the album should sell an estimated 500,000 copies in the first week in the US alone.
In response to the album leak, West decided to leak the birth of his baby daughter a full four weeks early. No word yet if he’s decided to keep her in a briefcase too.
Pink Floyd Challenge Spotify Listeners For Access To Catalogue
Here’s a challenge for you. After becoming notorious hold outs when it comes to digital music, let alone streaming music, Pink Floyd have announced they’ll release their entire back-catalouge onto Spotify if a million fans stream “Wish You Were Here”.
The announcement came over the weekend, and Spotify for their part say they will keep fans updated on the progress with the hashtag #floydcountdown on Twitter.
Of course, a million listeners is nothing to sneeze at. Just three songs managed to achieve streams higher than a million last week in the US, including ‘Can’t Hold Us’ by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, ‘Radioactive’ by Imagine Dragons, and ‘Get Lucky’ by Daft Punk.
But Pink Floyd’s audience is not to be underestimated, and their fanbase have shown themselves in past to have a ferocious appetite of the bands music. Just last week news came out about a man who’s been sent to jail for a third time because he refuses to stop blasting the band’s impressive back catalogue all day and all night on repeat. Now that’s a fan.
Incidentally, their catalogue is already available on competing services such as Pandora and Rdio. You can also purchase their songs on the world’s biggest digital music retailer iTunes, after a brief stint where the group removed their tracks once they reclaimed their catalogue from EMI.
Melbourne’s Fractures Cancels Debut Gig After Fracturing Neck
No, that isn’t a joke. In a case of life imitating art, Fractures has been forced to cancel his debut show on Thursday June 20 at The Toff in Melbourne.
Fractures, the moniker of Melbourne based singer & multi-instrumentalist Mark Zito, took a fall at home late last week and cracked a vertebrae in his neck. Subsequently, he is unable to perform and regrettably has to cancel the upcoming debut headline show.
Born of out studio experimentation and an unrelenting fascination with boundless genres, Fractures is the culmination of diverse and disparate musical styles that have influenced Mark throughout his music-making life. The debut headline show was to help further propel the rising star after causing quite a stir with the debut single ‘Twisted’.
