Kevin Devine Responds to Album Leak

Kevin Devine has released a lengthy response to the recent incident of his new album 'Brother's Blood' leaking 2 months ahead of its release.

In his myspace blog, Devine states:

"So it goes, and so it went: over the weekend it came to my attention, first via trickle (a well-meaning e-mail to this website from a kind fan) then via relative flood (a phone call from the label, management, confirmation in the blogosphere, etc.) that "Brother's Blood" has leaked, 2 months before its official release.

I'm ambivalent, or more appropriately, confused. (Is "multivalent" a word? I'm that.) I understand it, and I'm a touch flattered, a touch bewildered, and a touch annoyed. I'm not thrilled with myself for the last of those feelings, because it's ultimately not that surprising in this day and age, and beyond that, I'm pretty positive it wasn't a malicious act borne of career-sabotaging intentions, the 'leak.' Someone probably left a file-share open on the wrong server, or gave an advance of the record (necessary in generating press 'buzz' in our little indie ghetto) to the wrong friend, etc. etc. etc."

He goes on to say:

"So, when viewed from that vantage, it's a little disappointing when someone decides to give away something you've worked hard to present to people in a very specific and deliberate manner for specific and deliberate reasons. It takes my agency away as an artist to share my work with you in context and as intended. It hurts the independent label that risked sinking its money - money they don't necessarily have in bunches - into helping me make a record I'm proud of and really love. And, if the leak impacts how my record actually sells to the small corner of the world expected to purchase it, it potentially hurts the perception about me as a touring artist, at least to the people who look at album sales as an indicator of an artist's viability.

And that's the biggest problem. I've generally been a proponent of, "Fuck it, just give it away - it's going to leak anyway, and so long as kids come to the shows, it all evens out." But if that math is fuzzy, if downloading doesn't beget a bigger draw, someone like me, who is by no means fat with wealth from a career in music, has never received a record label royalty check, and makes his living almost entirely from income earned on the road, is in trouble (relatively speaking). Which I'm sure is NOT the intention of the people downloading the music."

Later on in the blog he says:

"In a sense, I'm flattered anyone WANTS to hear my record two months before it's finished, and add it to the list of things I never thought I'd be able to tell the proverbial grandkids. And from what I understand, the vast majority of the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, which is heartening. I'd especially like to thank Jason Tate from absolutepunk.net, who offered kind, sensible and empathetic support on his website, as did many of the listeners in the forum - I try not frequent those spots as I think it's probably bad for someone's head to constantly canvas strangers' ideas of/responses to him, but in this instance and in the interests of curiosity, research, and damage control, I did, and I was surprised and humbled."

The full myspace blog post can be read here.