Idolator

If you've paid half-attention to the news cycle as regards illegal file sharing over the last 12 months, then you've already gleaned the gist of "Ripped To Shreds," where writer Adrienne Day interviews the founder of former BitTorrent hub OiNK, nameless members (and ex-members) of "ripping crews," small label owners, and journalists to outline the rise in online leak culture for a print readership that will presumably still be mildly shocked by the fact that "many of the saboteurs come from within the industry itself," that record labels and journalists and bands and friends of bands and nameless studio hands are all complicit, to one degree of malice or another, in putting records online for anyone to steal before they've been officially released. But here's a thumbnail. More »

The forthcoming album by former next-blog-things Beirut, The Flying Cub Cup, leaked at the end of last month, weeks ahead of its October release date. The sorta-culprit? Music writer Erik Davis, who sold his watermarked copy of the CD to his local record shop; whoever bought the promo copy apparently decided to share his pre-release bounty with his friends and fellow OiNK dwellers. Davis felt pretty bad about the whole debacle—especially since his name's been sorta-sullied among the publicisterati as a result of all this—but his blog entry on the subject also gets into the idea of the watermarked release, and how said watermarking results in a curious spectre being hung over the already-beleaguered-enough profession of music writing: More »