Radio killed the music star?

So the other day, I was listening to the radio, and they had a pretty interested interview with a guy at MTV News who wrote an article/scathing angry rant about something that happened at another radio station in Chicago.

The gist of it: q101 gets a hold of a leak of the White Stripes' new album, Icky Thump. The DJ, being a huge fan of the White Stripes, decides to play the whole thing on air because she wants to get everybody hyped up for the finished album (the leak was actually of an unfinished version). There's much rejoicing, right? Wrong. A mere two hours later, lead singer Jack White
actually calls the station and chews out the DJ for playing the album, claiming that she's doing terrible things to the music industry by jumping the gun and whatnot. The MTV article was essentially blasting the q101 DJ and radio DJs in general for doing stuff like this, and the interview I heard was pretty much the DJs trying to get this guy to see the other side of the issue.

So, who's to blame for the mess? If you ask me, definately *not* q101 or the DJ. Sure, playing the *whole album* without thinking that there might be some backlash might not have been the smartest move, but if anyone's to blame, it's the person who leaked the album in the first place, or possibly even the record company itself. I'm more than willing to bet that these "accidental" leaks aren't as accidental as we're led to believe. Hey, what better way to score some free publicity for a new album than to cause a big ruckus over it getting leaked onto the Internet just weeks away from the release date? It also seems to happen quite a lot when there's a big name involved- Evanescence and Linkin Park's latest albums were also leaked prematurely.

Does Jack White have a right to be angry? Yes,but taking it out on a *fan* who loves his music and wanted to share it with other fans was totally uncalled for, not to mention, it smacks of looking a gift horse in the mouth if you go back to that "free publicity" thing. As someone who commented on the MTV article said, "There are thousands of musicians trying to get their music played on the radio and these guys are angry because too much of theirs was played?" If White didn't want the material leaked, then he should redirect his anger to whoever leaked it, or the record company itself. But what is there to be angry about? The copy the radio station received wasn't even the finished product, and anyone who might have recorded it not only got an unfinished album, but a radio rip of it.

On a related note, I present to you the story of Year Zero, the latest Nine Inch Nails album. In an effort to protest the way the recording industry is handling itself in the digital age, Trent Reznor personally leaked some of the songs on the album early by leaving USB drives containing the songs in easily noticeable places at NIN concerts.