According to reports, Usher's new album 'Here I Stand' was illegally downloaded more than half a million times before it was released this week.
The whole album appeared on the internet a week ahead of its release, and Digital Music News noted on Friday that multiple full album download listings had appeared on BitTorrent tracker Mininova.org. Media tracking firm BigChampagne, meanwhile, say that individual tracks were leaked as early as March, though most of the album downloads – a total of 554,716 via BitTorrent alone – happened in the week before the LP's release.
Tracks were leaked earlier in the year, of course, by producer Polow da Don, who, as previously reported, claimed that he released it as a tactical manoeuvre to gain radio play and publicity for the album.