Last night, the following email blast went out to a bunch of music writers:
SUBJECT: Animal watermark warning
Hello friends -
Sorry to write this one….but…..
Last week three tracks from Animal Collective’s new album leaked. Within minutes we were able to track the leak to an writer’s CD. That person got in more trouble than you care to hear about and was almost fired. The person was also forced to write an apology letter to an entire staff of people and the head of Domino Records along with other penance.
The watermarking of these CD’s should be noted as anyone you loan it too or any MP3′s you make will have YOUR NAME embedded in it. I would think twice before doing anything with this CD. Also I betcha didn’t know each CD costs 4.00 to watermark and is done for a reason. Please let us keep trusting you.
Watermarked advances have been going out for a few years now, and there have always been (probably apocryphal) rumors about some big-name writer getting busted for giving out promos; that said, we can’t remember the last time a label went for a public spanking, and we have to wonder what that “other penance” could be. Any more info? Drop us a line at tips@idolator.com.
(Also: Four dollars a disc?! Why didn’t we get into that racket?)
Well, not that you’d know… last week was the only week that four members were going to be in the same town to do press until the album is released. We’d love to have waited longer to service the record out, but necessity called for it.
living in the ’00s,
KCG
@Jfrankparnell: it looks like it wasn’t sent by the label, but the by the indie publicist who’s handling the album’s release. it went out to pretty much every music writer i know (including myself).
as for the lead time, i know that the glossy women’s magazines need lots of time to plan, so three months is still a smart move, as it’s going to leak anyway. press still helps, which is why it’s not a good idea to send out a patronizing email scolding a bunch of writers who didn’t do anything.
As a person who has had to deal with a number of watermarked recordings, I can definitely say that simply ripping a watermarked file from one format to another will *NOT* remove the watermark.
I put up 30 seconds excerpts of watermarked files on a web site for a client (had no choice – label only sent me watermarks). Got an email soon after saying that my watermark was leaked onto the net. I had to point out to the label that they sent me a watermarked CD for net use. Duh.
Point – even in 30 seconds of audio, converted from AIFF to MP3, the watermark was still traceable.
Plus, since the watermark is physically in the audio (it is a rather hidden series of clicks), it renders the resulting audio something less than perfect.
Don’t even get me started on the Share digital watermark system. Nightmare!
It’s funny that there are still some labels out there who think that getting coverage (placement!) on the week of an album’s release is going to make or break it. Anyone making the argument that Animal Colllective needs a three month lead time for writers is happily living in the 1980s.
They have to be in the same town to do press? Wow. You’re right, I’d never guess anything like that would be considered a logistical deal breaker. Sounds like Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss, and Ace Frehley were involved. Not that I’d know.
This lowers my opinion of the band and the label. I wish it would get through peoples’ collective heads that leaks actually benefit the bands by spreading the word and by creating true and bonafide hype about the actual product. There is data that supports this…
AC should put out an album of Metallica covers.