Whether we like it or not, sometimes we have to hear news we really don’t want to hear. All our hard work to keep a surprise, well, a surprise, and it goes down the drain. That’s what most music artists have to face nowadays. 

Exhibit A: Harry Styles Target leak. Yes, you heard that right: Target (the store) leaked the name of Harry Styles’ third studio album before Harry himself could announce it to his fans. 

An employee at Target was doing inventory when they saw a new vinyl stocked under the name “Harry Styles – Harry’s House” in their scanner. This was a shock since no news of the upcoming album was released. The employee took a picture and posted it on Twitter where the information spread all throughout the app. Most fans did not believe the picture was real—claiming the photo was photoshopped. However, when Harry confirmed the name and cover of the album, fans were shocked and angered by the leak. To make matters worse, a month before the album was released, all 13 songs were leaked to fans as well. 

More recently, Taylor Swift’s album The Tortured Poets Department was leaked three days before the album release. It is unknown who leaked the album. However—as most know—it was a double album the entire time. Taylor released the second portion of the album two hours after the first, shocking everyone. Fortunately, that installment did not go out before its release. 

The overall enrichment of these leaks has damaged the anticipation for newer released albums, however there hasn’t seemed to be a fluctuation in streams on streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music if an album has been leaked or not.

Sophomore Lauren Como shared her insight on this situation: “I personally think that music leaks aren’t the greatest for the artist and might be bad for their careers, but there could also be a good outcome–it’s a really risky gamble.”

So have these music leaks destroyed the careers of artists or is it more a shove to the face that artists must face in order to have a sense of belonging in the industry?