Why aren't there more reviews of leaked albums? The delay between when blogospheric buzz leads me to hear a record and its actual release date seems to have increased in the last six months. These days I frequently find myself wondering what the press thinks about the albums I'm currently most excited about, only to realize that they're abiding by the laws of the labels, not the anarchy of the internet.

The tradition of holding off on reviewing a CD until it's on shelves seems defensible to me. It'd be a shame to let those who have taken advantage of leaked copies hurt artists even further by depressing their sales with potentially buzz-deflating reviews. And of course the leaked product isn't always the final one, so judging an early, surreptitiously-obtained copy might be unfair. I've done it, but I'm just a lowly amateur blogger. Major reviewers seemed to respect release dates, and it seems admirable that they do.

But I wonder how long it'll hold. Stereogum's a blog, sure, but they've also got a gigantic audience. And they're now making a feature out of reviewing leaked albums. It seems unavoidable that the practice will seep into Pitchfork, then Rolling Stone, then, hell, I don't know — NPR?

At any rate, this trend seems inevitable and superficially unfortunate, but also something that musicians can probably adapt to without too much trouble. Reducing the amount of time between the end of mastering and the album's official release date is the most obvious solution, although that'll necessitate less carefully-scheduled releases. But that's probably fine, too: the only real justification for such precise timing that I'm aware of is a label's desire to stretch its releases out so that revenue stays even through the year, and so that similar acts in their stable don't step on one another's toes. Maybe there's another reason, but if there is I can't think of it at the moment.

I think the labels are doomed anyway, so removing their scheduling abilities isn't any great tragedy. Bands will record on their own. If they need to schedule strategically, their smaller number of personnel will make it easier to prevent leaks. More often they'll probably just release the album as soon as they can — I can't imagine that too many artists enjoy having to wait to release their work.