Surely anyone reading this who downloads music has fallen prey to a fake leak now and again, since it’s not possible to inspect bum albums before you buy them the way one can with those high-end designer purses that mysteriously “fell off the back of a truck” before being sold on your less savory street corners. And oftentimes, those fakes are pretty easy to spot–take, for example, all the aspiring Vitamin Water moguls who labeled their freestyles with 50 Cent’s name. But if a group of pranksters calling themselves the Overdub Tampering Committee are serious about their claims, it may turn out that even the most diehard fans have been duped into downloading phony copies of leaks now and again:
We are a group of musicians who have downloaded newly leaked albums by popular artists, quickly recorded many subtle overdubs over the work, and then re-leaked it to the internet. We have done this for about three years now. We used all kinds of instruments with recording techniques that matched the audio quality of the album in question. We used a varied amount of re-leaking methods including but not limited to Soulseek, OiNK, The Pirate Bay, Limewire and zipped files hosted on sites like YouSendIt or Mediafire with links spread out on hundreds of message boards. Our turn over time was usually very small so often our version of the artist’s album was online for download within hours of its original leak. If you illegally download music on the internet the chances that our work is in your collection is very, very likely! In fact, you might have a whole lot of us!
The reason? Surprisingly, it isn’t self-promotion! Instead, it’s a much more noble cause: Fucking with people. No, really!
[O]ne day, about 4 years ago, one of us downloaded a newly leaked album by a very popular band. Excitedly listening to it for the first time we noticed a very out of place death metal song in the middle of the album. The obvious genre change and the ability to check the track listing and run time for each song on a reliable website made it easy to sniff out that this leak had been tampered with. We discarded the leaked files and waited patiently for the actual release where upon we bought it in a store.
This got us thinking: what if this problem got more insidious, subtle, and widespread? What if there was a network of musicians who got a hold of albums right as they leaked, added subtle yet very much additional overdubs all over the album, and then re-leaked it to the internet? We imagined a scenario where someone would get in a car with their friend, he would put on the new _____ album, and you would say, “Where’s all the piano parts?” to which the driver would say, “What piano parts? This album is all guitars and drums.” Finally, you would scratch your head and say, “Not my copy!”
It would be bewildering.
It would be irksome.
It would be annoying.
We set out to make that specific bewildering, annoyance a possibility.
Man, if this is true–and not the initial step of some annoying viral Web Sheriff promotion (or even an RIAA thing, although they do take time out from their manifesto to LOL at MediaDefender)–these guys are my new heroes. Unfortunately they don’t list their “accomplishments,” although they do claim that they’ve performed this little trick with their own albums after they’ve seen them leaked on OiNK et al. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to who might be involved in this merry band of pranksters? Because I’d love to buy any/all of them a drink.
The Overdub Tampering Committee [overdubtampering.blogspot.com; HT Eric Harvey]
There are enough people out there — not a LOT, but enough who are serious about this kind of thing — who download the leaks and buy the albums that this would have come out a long time ago if it were for real.
I do not know these folks, but I know those behind the “brand new” Postal Service song that was leaked and well-covered a few years back. Plus a few other notable “leaks” as well. I see a whole lot of this in the future. File sharing is anything but dependable, and I’m all for people gumming it up for whatever the reason.
If they really did this, why not publish a list? Or even an SFV file you can compare your itunes library to.
If they’ve been doing this for 4 years, and no one noticed, does it really matter?
I suspect the actual gag is the notion of certain file-sharing “cognescenti” listening to their leaked version next to the real version and insisting to their friends that there’s a noticeable difference.
“Can’t you hear the extra drums? It’s so brills!”
“links spread out on hundreds of messageboards”??
without any proof, color me skeptical.
@pinder: exactly.
I vaguelly recall Barenaked Ladies doing something along these lines a few years back, but I’m too lazy to do any research on it.
Funny shit, man. I agree that the artists doing these deserve drink and a hearty “well met!”
I have three requests, OTC:
1) Please reveal how many of your versions, rather than the originals, have been mistakenly reviewed by websites and mags of note? As in: Taiwanese releases not on Absolutely Kosher?
2) Can you please start making most records better?
3) Are you Negativland (etc) or Ween?
Suddenly I understand how everyone could possibly love Panda Bear. They’re listening to some modified leak.
I’ve downloaded leaks in the past where the leaked version differed from the CD version, but I’ve always attributed that to the leaked version being a demo/unfinished/rough draft/etc of the album in question, which they often really are. It’s entirely possible that the pranksters in question could get away with it via Soulseek, YSI, Limewire (but on Oink? hell no!) but as others have said, some examples would be nice.
oh man, that panda bear comment cracked me up.
Assuming for the moment that this is true (hypothetically)… what if some of these songs were actually improved by the overdubs? I mean, who hasn’t had a moment when you’re listening to something and you think: “man, this song would be PERFECT if they just changed/added/removed this one thing…” Makes me wonder if this kind of alteration could catch on as a new fad… it isn’t really a “remix,” but it isn’t the original either. Customized music?
I hope at the end of this “experiment” they release the google adsense numbers to everybody else. You know, so we can see how much money is there to be made out of coming up with blogs/sites with shocking! news! blogosphere going crazy! Idolator 60pt. headline!
This whole operation strikes me as a hoax, or if true, a bizarre waste of time and effort.
meta
The Internet itself is a bizarre waste of time and effort. Anything on top of it is gravy.
Sounds like something Bill Drummond would do for shits n’ giggles… but I guess we’ll never really know.
label exec brainwave: “let’s spread panic by claiming to piss in their milk bottles!”.
cynical net community: “yeah whatever, pissed-in-milk still better than paid-for-milk”.
label guy: “drat!”
As I said on their blog:
If it’s true, I bet the artists will hate you more than the people who download the leaks. Most can understand the need to hear new music, but a common complaint is that it’s not the finished product being heard - raw mixes and the like.
You say:
We guessed that if this could become a widespread phenomenon it would really highlight one of the biggest flaws with the “illegal downloading” method of obtaining music. i.e You Do Not Know That Someone Hasn’t Fucked With Your Favorite Band’s Album.
More like No One Had Fucked With Your Favourite Band’s Album, But Now They Have!
I have a White Stripes album with bass parts dubbed onto it, and I have to admit, I like it better that way.
I have a White Stripes album with bass parts dubbed onto it, and I have to admit, I like it better that way.
i’m pretty sure they’re responsible for the infamous “cider and cookies” that has been attributed to radiohead.