Will.i.am and Five Other Music Acts Whose Songs Were Leaked

Rapper decides to push back his new record so he can polish it after tracks ended up being leaked online

By Josh Grossberg Sep 19, 2012 9:37 PMTags
Will.I.AmKevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Somebody phunked with his release schedule.

Will.i.am has postponed the street date for his latest album after some of the tracks were leaked to the Internet.

The demos were pilfered from his car that was stolen last month and were unfinished, prompting the Black Eyed Peas rapper to delay dropping his new solo album titled #willpower  so he could write new tunes because he doesn't want fans to hear rough versions.

"I'm trying to finish #willpower…& now because of all the leaks I have push the album back to make new songs…I will give you updates soon," he tweeted yesterday.

The album, which finds the 37-year-old musician and coach of the U.K. edition of The Voice collaborating with the likes of Britney Spears, Mick Jagger, Alicia Keys and Justin Bieber, was originally set to come out towards the end of 2011 but was pushed back to Sept. 24 and then to Oct. 25. No word yet when it'll be out.

Will.i.am's not the only artist to suffer this file-sharing fate. Here are five other music acts that have had their music leaked prior to their release.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

1. U2: Bono and the boys had hoped to keep the lid on their 12th studio album, No Line on the Horizon, until its March 3, 2009 arrival, but those plans were dashed after Universal Music Group's division Down Under, Universal Australia, accidentally made it available for download prior to its release, giving more than 100,000 fans an early listen.

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2. Eminem: Slim Shady had a big headache on his hands after tracks off his much-hyped comeback album, Recovery, ended up finding their way to YouTube before its June 22, 2012 release.

Ian Gavan/Getty Images

3. Madonna: A number of tracks off her latest release, MDNA, the most publicized one being "Give Me All Your Love," which made Madge very upset. The album still went on to debut at No. 1.

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4. Justin Bieber: Sometimes leaks can help an entertainer's music sales just as much as hurt. Case in point: The Biebs saw several tracks including collaborations with Nicki Minaj and Drake end up on the web prematurely before his latest record, Believe, came out. But it made little difference as the album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart anyway, selling 374,000 copies.

PABLO PORCIUNCULA/AFP/Getty Image

5. Paul McCartney: Fans got an early preview of the former Beatle's standards album, Kisses on the Bottom, which he unveiled earlier this year after the collection leaked to various online sites, according to examiner.com.