It’s not uncommon for a song, or even an entire album, to be leaked by a third party ahead of its official release. This is especially true in an age where Youtube is a common household name. One might think that leaking an album ahead of schedule would be detrimental to financial success of the song or album once it is released, but in reality the effects have proven to be of little or no hinderance.
Take for example the recent leak of Lady Gaga’s new single Applause. Applause was set to be released on the 18th of August, but was leaked ahead of time by hackers. Gaga (real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) claims that the leak ruined the marketing of the song.But despite this fact, the single was still received financial success when it was released in the market. The song can still be seen near the top of many top ten lists
This links back to the debate relating to the effects of piracy. It used to be generally accepted, that piracy had nothing but negative side effects for the artists and distributors. However, recently the mindset of some artists and distributors have changed: CEO of Time warner famously commented earlier this month that the record breaking levels of piracy of the hit television series Game of Thrones was better than an Emmy award. Although, he was commenting more on what piracy suggested about the quality of television show rather than financial effects. I might be stating the obvious here, but I think it would it not be completely far fetched to suggest that giving away some forms of intellectual property in an unofficial manner, such as through leaks, or arguably by giving some leeway for piracy, could be beneficial to the content creators.
Sources:
http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/8/4602764/game-of-thrones-piracy-better-than-an-emmy-says-time-warner-ceo
http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/view/34163/lady-gaga-sees-applause-for-single-despite-hacker-leak/
