The greatest compliment a band could be paid is knowing that fans are willing to go to great lengths to hear your work. In the past, that's included hitchhiking or traveling across county—or even state—borders in order to hear their favorite performers live. But in the age of the Internet, there's a darker side to this, and yes, it does involve illegal downloading.



While the ethical issues surrounding illegal downloading still offer a lot of territory for debate, two things are doubtless: Firstly, that it's here to stay. Fans will get free copies of new albums one way or another. Secondly, that it does have an impact on an artist's bottom line—and this is especially harsh on indie artists, who have smaller audiences and tend to work with independent labels (meaning they have smaller budgets for promotion).

That makes the recent news of an Animal Collective album leak all the more dividing. The band's upcoming album is Merriweather Post Pavilion, and to say it's hotly anticipated is an understatement. Bloggers and music critics seem to be salivating through their words, eagerly waiting the moment when the record hits stores. Fans are doing the same, and taking even more desperate actions.

Recently, Pitchfork reported that someone hacked the band's email account, and then sent a message to a music blog claiming to be a band member. The band's album had already been leaked, and the leak was plugged; now, the message read, the band wanted the album to have as much exposure as possible. Please, the phantom emailer implored, help us spread our music far and wide.

Skeptical minds would have immediately guessed this was a hoax and at the very least contacted the band's spokesperson or label to find out if it was indeed legit. The blog posted the email, despite their misgivings, with a headline saying there was a call to release all the album tracks because the band would prefer their record be heard as a whole. The blog emailed the band back, asking about their intentions, and swiftly received a reply that no, they did not need help leaking the album, nor did they care to themselves.

That's going to some pretty great lengths—hacking an email account in order to dupe people into getting more music out. But the surprising thing is the record was due out just a couple of weeks after the hack occurred! There are some very impatient music fans out there.

With Animal Collective tickets from http://www.stubhub.com/animal-collective-tickets, there's a good chance you could hear some of the new songs at their performances. But that wasn't enough for this fan, apparently. Fortunately, the crisis was averted, but had the tracks leaked, you can bet they would have eaten into the band's profits by a great deal. And they really do subsist on that money, so it's an awful shame that some fans put their own satisfaction ahead of the band's that make them so happy.