Frank Ocean’s New Album Was Pirated 750,000 Times

Carl Williott | August 26, 2016 4:11 pm

The rise of streaming has significantly cut down on the amount of music being illegally downloaded, mainly because it’s just a lot easier to stream than it is to track down a reliable version and actually get it onto your device. But when that convenience is taken out of the equation — like when a major album is gated off from the vast majority of the listening public due to an exclusive streaming deal — then bootlegging surges. We saw it with the apparently unprecedented pirating stats for Kanye West‘s The Life Of Pablo, which was downloaded illegally some 500,000 times in its first week, and now Frank Ocean‘s Blond/Blonde has eclipsed that number.

Music Business Worldwide reports that 753,849 bootleg copies have been downloaded in the time between the LP’s August 20 release and this morning, based on numbers provided to them by “data-analytics and ‘piracy audience reconnection’ specialist” MUSO.

Two side notes: 1) How the hell do they even track that? It’s kind of terrifying, actually. Can every downloaded thing just be tallied? 2) Makes you wonder what the Endless numbers are.

Anyhow…nearly a million in six days, that’s the kind of thirst that four years away will create. And it’ll surely translate to next week’s charts even with the high pirating figures.

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