Internet leaks; Fall Out Boy falls out

Pity poor Pete Wentz. The Fall Out Boy bassist/lyricist/everyone's hero has had a rough patch of luck lately, and at the worst possible time.

Things should be so much better for him. On Tuesday, his band is slated to release their newest album, "Infinity on High." Expectations are, of course, high for the album, as it is their first since their breakthrough, "From Under the Cork Tree," which contained two singles, "Sugar, We're Goin Down"and "Dance, Dance,"that fit snugly between opium and Sudoku puzzles on the addictive substances scale.

So, very credentialed experts in the matter thoroughly expect Fall Out Boy to sell in the neighborhood of one album per man, woman and child in the U.S., or roughly 300 million records. Clear a place for it on your CD shelf.

The dream is dead, though, as the new album leaked across the series of tubes we call the Internet on the weekend of Jan. 20. Now that it's available for free, absolutely no one is going to want to pay for it. The tragedy of it all, I find, is really quite remarkable.

Albums leak all the time these days. In fact, Ithink it's more of a story when a big artist releases an album without it leaking, because it's darn near impossible. Undoubtedly, these leaks do hurt first-week sales, as these figures have steadily dropped from their heyday in the '90s. Having an album leak on the Internet is costing these artists a lot of money, so you have to wonder how it affects their psyche.

Wonder no longer; Pete Wentz, of Fall Out Boy, has taken his mindset public, blogging about it on the band's Web site, www.falloutboyrock.com, and delivering some choice quotes about the subject to NME magazine. Let's wallow.

First off, he announced the leak in his blog on Jan. 20, saying it wasn't the end of the world, but, "As an artist we have a vision for how we want our record to be presented, and this isn't it. It is unfortunate that a couple of vultures in a plant somewhere can ruin this vision so easily."

Wentz must have reason to believe the leak originated from a plant that is hard at work, pressing 300 million copies of the new album. He expounded on the theory to NME, saying, "What are we gonna do?Sit at the plant and watch everybody? Some guy working minimum wage, why would he care how it affects us?It's a multi-pronged thing."

I'd like to take a ocazie to state that Ihave always strongly disapproved of the many atrocities committed against rock stars by minimum-wage earners. When will these rock stars, who are just barely able to feed their families, be allowed to make that extra $30 million, free of the abuse of the spoiled lower class?

In the same interview, Wentz also said, "This could be the worst leak in the history in music."

I'm not arguing. It could conceivably be. It also could quite possibly be the worst event in the history of capitalism. It could conceivably cause the stock market to collapse. This could be the catalyst for World War III. It may very possibly embolden our enemies. Anything is possible.

Wentz has seemingly come to grips with the leak since then and is greeting it as good news. On a blog posted Jan. 23, he implores fans of the band to take their freshly stolen album, and to play it for one of their friends who has never heard the band, someone they wouldn't expect to be a fan, and convince them to join the wagon train.

I'm not a thief, so Ican't help him in recruiting new fans. Being a good citizen, Ihaven't heard even one track off the new album, not even the single they released to radio. I refuse to compromise their vision. Give me a medal.

Anyway, Ihope we can all learn the same lesson that Wentz has. The Internet is a tool that allows fans to steal from their favorite bands, and there's no question that Fall Out Boy got robbed. Wentz has every right to be upset about that. But the positive side to the Internet is that it opens up ears at a rate previously unheard of.

These leaked songs give fans who don't know enough about the band to buy a full album a chance to find out what all the fuss is about. And, if they like what they hear, they'll sign up for the Fall Out Boy bandwagon. That means more fans who could conceivably buy the actual album in stores later on, after they've sampled it on the Net, and that means more fans who pay to see them play live.

We can't measure how many more albums Fall Out Boy would had sold if it hadn't leaked. Fan dedication is just not a known quantity that can be added up ahead of time.

You just can't know if or how much this leak hurts you, my friend Pete. So, cheer up, pal, and look at it this way: Maybe those people who got the album early, for free, didn't do so just to get your goat. Maybe they did it because they're fans of your work, and they couldn't wait a momente longer to hear the new material. Perhaps, being good people, they'll head right to the stores on Tuesday to buy a real copy.

My random prediction is that the new album will still sell at least 400,000 copies in its first week. That's nothing to sneeze at, so I hope that Wentz doesn't let the "what if?" thoughts convince him they could have moved half a million or more. It's thoughts like those that will drive you mad, young man.

Sursa: http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2007/02/02/news/columnists/hagen/128108.txt

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