Is Madonna embracing the digital age?

We live in a time where artists songs leaking is almost inevitable. Downloading music illegally is almost too easy; songs are small files and can be transferred from person to person in seconds. More and more artists are taking leaks with a grain of salt, knowing their true bread and butter is with touring and promoting the albums that many ‘acquire’ for free. Of course, just because something is easy and everyone is doing it, doesn’t make it right, but Madonna seems to finally be embracing the digital era where ‘fans’ leak music all the time, and she’s finally combatting it smartly rather than going off on a rant on Instagram.

Recently, a wide array of Madonna songs made their way onto the internet, along with several outtakes of photoshoots that weren’t meant to be seen by the public. However, Madonna and her team finally seem to have accepted that leaks are inevitable and gotten on top of things by releasing the tracks from Rebel Heart early on iTunes. If people can’t buy a copy of a song, they sure will find some way to listen to it, and this is a smart move from Madonna’s team, enabling her true fans to purchase the album and support her work.

Six official songs from Rebel Heart are now available on iTunes here, and the whole album is available for pre-order. The release date hasn’t been pushed up any; it’s still expected to come out in March of next year. The album will have a whopping nineteen tracks. Leaks may be terrible, and they certainly undermine an artist’s efforts to perfect their work, but it’s nice to see Madonna is staying on top of things and giving her fans an early Christmas present. Good job, Madonna. This is how you handle a leak.