I paid $600 for a leaked copy of the new album last week. Turned out to be the Teletubbies album. Thought I recognized the voice on the phone...fucking Simon Cowell.
If Queen keep tight hold of the album and don't send out copies to journalists to write reviews, then the chances of leaking are minimal.
That said, it wouldn't surprise me at all if it was employees at the pressing plants that actually leaked albums onto the net.
That's actually a pity as I know full well that my "Special Edition" from Queen Online WILL NOT turn up on my doorstep on the day of release, which means i either wait for an upload somewhere or wait however long it takes them to pull their fingers out of their
I'll promise you this. It will be 1 1/2 month at minimum before an American fan can conviniently purchase a copy locally. That release day will come and others can buy it from local stores, but I will have long since bought my copy with shipping costs because the USA is an extra 6 weeks behind for reasons that i'd bet my car cannot be argued good enough so that I see it as anything other than totally and completely deserving of every insult, complaint, middle-finger, bitch, gripe and spiteful retort to the entire process that made this happen from the top to the bottom, from Hollywood Productions to Queen Productions to anyone even associated by blood with whatever retard/retards made it possible for us to be on a week's delay even, but a 6 week delay I just can't find the words for. The middle finger with all words in English that hate the most just don't account my bitter aggravation. It's so much that I could almost on principle burn a free copy and boycot paying for a gift to the world I cherish above most any, but my USA 21st Century citizenship needs time equal to shipping copies by 19th Century cargo ships across the Atlantic and delivered by horseback. It's freaking financial suicide.
"Well you can wait a month and a half to buy it in a store, or you can open your browser and have a bootleg copy finish first playing less than and hour and a half later. But if you want the fair purchse, you have to go online through iritation and still wait a few days for delivery, afterall this is the USA and our nation can't always handle commerce like all those more advanced smaller nations.
And they wonder why they can't sell big in America. They do this every time, though the worst before was Fire in the Bowl coming 3 or 4 weeks later. Another World did that, Montreal I think did that, and Roger Taylor's solo music is still running late from ever showing up outside of a 40% the fair price rare music store, stores that the net have dispenced justice on.
I wonder how many North Americans will just say "fuck it" and download it because it's being released so much later on this side of the Atlantic.
Don't see why they can't do a worldwide release on the same date.