WHEN one song is leaked online, it looks like carelessness. But circulating in cyberspace, it feels like marketing or an elaborate trick.
ago.
In the past fortnight alone, five new songs have been uploaded on to file-sharing sites, and fan sites have published the track list of a reported three-CD set of 49 demos.
But should we think we're so lucky? More likely we're just being days, but it might be just as effective.
plugs, insiders say.
"She and her record company leaked the tracks deliberately," says music industry analyst Phil Tripp, who runs Australian music consultancy Immedia! "It's the newest gimmick in the industry, the leaking of tracks.
It's the new marketing black. It's at a time when she needs as much positive press as she can get. Not just her, but everyone in the industry.
You need as much exposure as you can get, and you need as much advance publicity as possible."
The music blogs agree. "We don't really approve of leaked tracks flying around the web before an album's even been completed," says UK music site Pop Justice, but in the case of Kylie Minogue, the constant, relentless barrage of leaked material almost makes it seem as if "someone up there" wants us to hear it all.
Minogue's not the only leaky act. Two songs from the endlessly delayed Guns 'N Roses CD, Chinese Democracy, have been circulating since late last year, with another three hitting the web in early May.
Nine Inch Nails had to tell their record company to back off, Pumpkins, Tarantula, leaked on to the net last month, well ahead of the album expected in late July.
November over leaked tracks by hip-hop artist Jay-Z, and Natalie songs being posted on the internet, many labels freely admit to leaking tracks on purpose to build buzz.
Franz Ferdinand's label manager, Kris Gillespie of Domino Records, told the Christian Science Monitor, "We were almost doing too good a job."
director, Alexander Dahm.
If the singer ever needed good buzz, it's now.
Could this perhaps explain Minogue's "to do" list, also leaked last week?
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