so I'm waiting on this Aesop Rock nike running mix to leak (even though I jacked up my leg and am out of commission for a bit) and there's just nothing doing, to the point where I'm considering just buying it. is it possible that iTunes has trumped the problems associated with digital leaking before release dates by becomming the digital leak? or are iTunes exclusives always available on some website weeks in advance and I'm just not paying attention?

No clue.

But I am curious to see how Aesop Rock pulls off a running mix. LCD Soundsystem makes sense, but Aesop Rock. I'll definitely give it a listen, but I can't imagine actually running to this.

The iTunes Nike running mix is pretty good.

I would say it probably varries a bit. Some iTunes exclusive releases have review copies sent out. For example, Leigh Nash's Christmas EP last year. I have a physical copy of that because it's a review copy. So, theoretically, it could have been leaked.

My suspicion is most iTunes exclusives don't have pre-releases... therefore there would be no way of aquiring it before it is available on iTunes.

it can be gotten

related question: is there a compiled list of all the artists who have an exclusive itunes song or ep somewhere?

Great question. I've been wondering this as well.

i ask because of a debate i've had on another board. i argued that buying/selling music online - while obviously a booming industry - will not totally eradicate physical copy in my lifetime. i could probably get away with buying cds for another couple decades. however, it is argued that online music is the way of the future, and that only all the "safe" artists will have cds available, and the real, cutting-edge stuff will be exclusively online.

^interesting perspective. Though I think I would probably disagree with that and flip it 180 degrees.

Pop culture as a whole is moving more and more digital. So the "safe" artists are going to flow with that trend. Not to mention that for your average listener, they just care about individual songs and don't care so much about the big picture of any given singer/artist. So the digital format will most convienient.

However, the cutting edge stuff will probably resist this trend somewhat. Not to the degree that they wont have music available for digital download-- but that they will also release physical CDs for the true fans. I will cite several examples as reasoning. 1) Vinyl is not dead yet. Despite the fact that pop culture has moved on to CDs, a lot of indie and cutting edge artists still release vinyl as both a collector's item and because there is still a big crowd of people who think that music just sounds better on a record player. Likewise, there are a lot of people who say that a CD just sounds better than a song downloaded off of the internet. While I would expect the quality of downloads to improve, the prejudices will hang around. 2) The DIY ethic of the underground. Too many artists have too much fun creating the physical product to jump completely to a non-physical format.

That doesn't mean that I think the cutting edge stuff won't continue being a trailblazer in the digital medium, but I don't think that they will be the ones to go completely digital, either.

I think the perspective is from a economic standpoint as well. a major label won't risk a huge sum of money pressing cds for a new act, especially when the costs of releasing music digitally are significantly less (anyone have rough numbers on that comparison?)... major labels will only press albums for proven artists that have an audience beyond the internet.

indie bands may lean towards going digital because they simply can't afford to put out an album DIY style.

and to be clear - while i think these may be solid points, i believe them to be irrelevant to me personally, i think it's a shift that won't impact my music-lovin' life anytime soon.