I Hate Luv Storys music leaked before release?

For a while on Monday evening, it seemed that in the long-running war between original material and its pirated versions, piracy had again won a battle, when the music of Dharma Productions’ upcoming movie, I Hate Luv Storys, mysteriously leaked online, before physical CDs had been officially released.

Music composers of the Imran Khan, Sonam Kapoor-starrer, Vishal-Shekhar, as well as the movie’s director, Punit Malhorta, had been tweeting about the music of the film on micro-blogging website, Twitter, and had put the date of release as May 27.

Speaking against piracy
The trio was caught unaware on Monday afternoon, when Twitter users said that they had already downloaded the songs of the movie for free. Vishal Dadlani then spoke up against the piracy of his soundtrack, which opened to favourable reviews on Tuesday, and tweeted, “Got to ask you guys to be patient and get the original soundtrack, so you hear it better, and all our work is justified!”

Shekhar Ravjiani also acknowledged the leak of the music, and tweeted, “I know it’s out on the net. The quality is terrible. Wait till tonight people. Don't want y'all to hear bad quality.” Dadlani later tweeted that Sony is releasing the soundtrack immediately, “Itunes, Amazon, wherever you like, originals will be available tonight, so go for it!”

Different story
But Sony executives claimed that the music of the movie was released for paid download on international websites much earlier, which may have led the music being ripped and uploaded for free download.

Shridhar Subramaniam, MD, Sony Music explained, “The music was released on May 21, across mobile platforms and radio worldwide. On sites like iTunes and Amazon, the music was uploaded on May 22. The music went up on an unofficial site on the night of May 23, hence the so-called ‘leak’ of music doesn’t impact us in any way at all.”

The confusion also stemmed from the fact that stories of the ‘leak’ appeared on the internet on Tuesday, andAmazon.co.uk placed the release date of the music as Monday, May 24, instead of May 22, while the official release was to be Thursday, May 27.

Sanujeet Bhujabal, Marketing Director of Sony Music clarified, “There’s no one date to release music these days, because of the multiple formats. So, the official launch date of the album remains May 27, and the album will be available across India then. But we’ve released the music on international websites on Friday, and in metropolitan cities on Tuesday.”

Leak or no leak?
Bhujapal was confident that there couldn’t have been any leak from the manufacturing side. “Sony has an impeccable track record in releasing some of the biggest international albums. There are extensive cross checks at every level, there is no way an album could be leaked.”

Commenting on the music being available for free download online, Bhujapal took it with a pinch of salt, “There’s no way to control the people who may upload tracks. If anything, the speed with which the tracks have appeared online goes on to show how immensely anticipated the project is. In fact, within two days of release, the songs are in the top 10 charts.”