unreleased and leaked songs

Lately, I've been obsessed with an allegedly leaked song made by Conan Gray and it made me think two things: one, is it really this easy to leak a song and two, why not post it if it's already recorded?

Okay, three things, the third one is how illegal it is to leak a song? spoiler, a lot.

Today we're diving into the music industry world, to discover together what happens before an album is released, where the discarded songs go and how they reach socials.

Let's dig into it for this new gem!

Hey clovers!

 I want to start this post by saying the difference between leaked and unreleased songs because I was certainly uneducated as hell on that. Unreleased songs are songs that didn't make it into an album or as a single and they are not officially released. On the other hand, a leaked song is a song shared on social media without the artist consent/permission. So basically, the difference is a legal one, because obviously leaking songs is illegal.

From my very thorough research I found out that songs are generally leaked by hackers, journalists or journalists' friends, relatives etc. although this is only regarding leaked music that will eventually be released. So is it less illegal to leak a song that was scrapped by the artist? No. 

I actually think that it makes it more illegal. Let's think about it: the only people that know about the scrapped songs are the artist, composer, director, productor and other staff hence, it is passed down a lot. Sometime scrapped songs are also sold to other artists meaning that they can reach any music company and the more hand it reaches, the more possibility of it being leaked. Mind you that all these people sign a NDA before even getting the opportunity to have those files. Now I'm no lawyer but it sounds pretty illegal to me.

What really caught my attention is finding out that sometime music is leaked on purpose, to see the audience reaction before deciding whether to keep or not a song. Kind of reminded me of that one Hannah Montana episode, where she writes a song, which wasn't really her style, and they invite her fans to listen to it.

So why would some songs be released and other not? There is not a singular answer but actually multiple. These are the ones I found. 

They don't fit either the album vibe or artist one.

If you listen carefully each album tells a story and in some ways they are connected together, whether by the melody, the groove or the meaning, they fit together. This could be either a personal preference of the artist or the producer wanting a consistent album.

As for the artist vibe, it is more or less the same argument for the album one. Since the fans got used to a certain look it is harder to drift away from it for an artist so when songs are different there's always the feeling it won't be liked, which circles back with the purpose leaking I mentioned earlier.

They will be released later on

It is not news to the world that artist write more songs than what they release. Sometime the extra songs are used for album anniversaries and other time they are sold.

Of course that leaking the songs lowers the probability of them being officially released.

They are too personal

Before being their job, let's remember that it's their passion too and some songs could come out way too personal and private to be released to the public. Although the whole point of singing is sharing not everything need to be out there.

They simply don't want to

Sometime, it's really none of our business why those songs didn't make ino an album and that's fine too.

Another question I asked myself is: How probable it is nowadays that a "leaked" song is actually AI?

There isn't a real percentage nor article about it, but from all the songs made fully with AI that are out on streaming apps I'd say it's like a 50/50 possibility, however, you could realise it still, if you have a good ear!

AI uses music already out to feed his "algorithm" so its song could sound repetitive and not original. Some people also say that AI songs are also "out of tune" and while I highly doubt it, it is probably because while it's too on tune it sounds empty and strange since no artist is perfectly on tune and we are not used to it. 

Another question that probably you've asked yourself is if it is or not legal to listen to leaked songs. Well, it is not illegal to only listen to the song so as long as you haven't leaked any of those, you're fine. While it is not illegal some could call it immoral. From my point of view it depends from the context, whether it is a song that was sold or if it's a soon-to-be-released. 

But at the end of the day you're the only one who can decide about it, no one will put you in jail.

Soo, that was it! let me know what do you think

And I'll see you soon with another gem!!★★