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Music messageboards around the world yesterday lit up with folks talking about the new Muse album which was leaked by some lucky bugger who's managed to get hold of a copy of 'Absolution', months before its September release. The album was hosted on the funnyphonenumbers webserver for most of yesterday.
However, the band's management, Taste Media, and the label, East West/Warner Bros, have been quick to jump on this and it's now been taken down, the only trace of the record left on the server is a message reading...
"Unfortunately, I have had a somewhat scary e-mail from Tastemedia threatening me with legal action if I didn't remove these samples. As I am only a young boy, I can't afford any legal action and have removed the samples from my site."
Somehow, we doubt this innocence. This does mean that there are fans out there with 192kbs versions of tracks from the album on p2p networks. It's not currently known whether this will lead to a White Stripes-like change of release date. However, fans expecting to host the album on their webserver and especially the ones stupid enough to post links on the official Muse messageboard, beware. A warning from the Muse webmaster...
"Any posting of links to leaked Muse tracks from Absolution will not be tolerated. Any posts which contain such content in them will be edited or deleted. If you are seen posting links up more than once, you will be banned without warning.
Please also note that I keep a record of all the users who have posted such links and if the band, their management or their record companies request for your information, I will give it to them, be it to give you a slap on the wrists, or to sue you for every penny you have."
DiScuss: Should hosting albums become a criminal act? Does downloading a record before release, like opening Christmas pressies early, take the magic and fun out of it? If you downloaded the record, what did you think? If you download the album, would you still buy it?
