Taylor Swift's new album may be called "1989", but things are a bit more difficult to control now than it did then: like music releases, for instance. A report from USA Today said that the singer's heavily promoted album, which was set for release on Monday, leaked online, and Taylor's label, Big Machine Records, had to wage war as the premature release hit music-sharing sites. The first track to leak online was "Blank Space," which the record company managed to take off YouTube a few hours after it was put up. This is not the first time that Taylor's album leaked mere days before the official release. In 2012, "Red" also leaked in full, but it had little impact on sales. It still went on to sell 1.23 million copies the first week of its release. Contributing editor for the Rolling Stone Magazine, Anthony deCurtis, said via USA Today that "Taylor Swift's fans are uncommonly loyal. I doubt that anyone who wanted to buy the album would be dissuaded by the leak." He's not the only one to think so. Former Billboard editor, Bill Wearde, said on Twitter that "The Taylor Swift album leak isn't trending on Twitter. And I think it's bc her fans are so loyal they won't tweet it. That's kinda awesome." He seemed to be right on that font, as some of Taylor's fans already swore not to download the album online. A fan tweeted, "I refuse to listen to '1989' until Monday. As far as I'm concerned, listening to the leak is disrespectful to @taylorswift13 #Swifties." Another said, "I'M A SWIFTIE I PROMISE, NOT TO LISTEN TO ANY KIND OR SORT OF A LEAK OR READ ANY LYRICS UNTIL 1989 IS OFFICIALLY OUT @taylorswift13" Vulture suggested that the leak may have come from France or any other French-speaking area. The website's writer, Lindsey Weber said, "If you downloaded the original leak, you'll see that song titles are missing and in their place there are a slew of numbered 'pistes,'" Weber writes, explaining that "piste" is French for "track." Furthermore, the album shows up at "Album inconnu" ("unknown album") in iTunes. Vulture added, "We're no Sherlock, but as far as we're concerned, the culprit is French and associated with Target." The hackers were able to release not only the 13 original tracks, but the 19 songs that were specifically made for the Target edition as well. You can download the album here. The premature release of Taylor's latest album, however, sets a baseline for the music industry. Us Weekly's entertainment director Ian Drew told USA Today, "The whole Taylor Swift album release is going to be a litmus test for the whole industry," he says. "No album has gone platinum this year - even the mighty Beyonce's - because no one is buying albums anymore. It's all streaming." Find out the 5 Best Songs of "1989" here.
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