Yesterday it was reported that Bruce Springsteen's new album High Hopes had leaked onto Amazon.com more that two weeks earlier than its prior release date. That leak appears to be a mistake on behalf of Amazon, as the mp3s of the album are no longer available as of Sunday.
Springsteen fans were thrilled when it was discovered on Saturday that High Hopes had become available as track-by-track mp3s (versus buying the entire album in mp3 form), but there was little information on whether the release was the doing of Springsteen or Amazon. Music Times reported yesterday that the performer would almost certainly need to be involved with the early release, otherwise Amazon could face potential legal action from the group and/or record label. However, even after the album was taken down from the site, mum's the word on both sides.
Springsteen's party didn't do any promotion for the surprise release, which leads some to believe that the action was strictly on Amazon's part. However, The Boss hasn't offered a statement on the "mistake" release either. If a performer's work, especially one as big as Springsteen's, is mistakenly released early, one might expect some ire from the performer.
It's also been suggested that Amazon may have released High Hopes early as a way to save face after refusing to carry Beyoncé's new album after the performer released it exclusively on iTunes for a week. The company might be willing to take heat from Springsteen's side if it could generate some headlines for exclusively releasing his album early. This seems unlikely however.
The most likely scenario (but far from guaranteed) is that the one-day release was planned as a stunt by both sides. If it was a stunt planned by either side, it doesn't seem to have paid off. Not nearly as many fans responded by downloading the album as Beyoncé's did, and the one-day limit didn't stop users from uploading the album to torrent sites. By the time High Hopes actually hits shelves, many will have already had the chance to access it illegally.
