Unreleased Michael Jackson Songs Hit BitTorrent
Written by enigmax on April 01, 2009Anyone familiar with BitTorrent will know that this protocol provides some of the best excitement to be found anywhere on the Internet. During the last few hours, up to 100 previously unreleased Michael Jackson songs were leaked and the battle is now on as his representatives try to put the genie back in the bottle.
Back in 2007, TorrentFreak reported on ‘The Biggest BitTorrent Leak‘, as anti-piracy company Media Defender was hacked and their internal emails went public. Since then, just about every movie, album and game has leaked to BitTorrent before their official release dates, but nothing has really eclipsed the MediaDefender fiasco – until now.
Back in early March 2009, Michael Jackson biographer Ian Halperin said he had proof that the ‘King of Pop’ had recorded as many as 100 unreleased tracks but was keeping them locked away. He claimed that upon Jackson’s death, the tracks would be made available to his children – Prince aged 11, Paris Katherine aged 10, and five year old Prince Michael II. The speculation was that despite Jackson’s turbulent financial situation in life, after his death these tracks would secure an inheritance for his kids.
Halperin’s credibility had already been called into doubt after he claimed variously that Jackson could barely speak, suffered from emphysema and had lost 95% of the vision in his left eye, which prompted the Jackson camp to issue a scathing denial. “Concerning this author’s allegations, we would hope in the future that legitimate media will not continue to be exploited by such an obvious attempt to promote this unauthorized ‘biography,’” it said.
Although it denied Halperin’s claims regarding the ‘Thriller’ star’s health, Jackson’s camp never denied the existence of the plan behind the unreleased songs. Now, unless Jackson really has died (which we very much doubt) that plan appears to have suffered quite a setback. Just a few hours ago, dozens of previously unreleased tracks leaked to BitTorrent prompting a swift reaction by Jackson’s legal team and anti-piracy partners who struggled to plug the leak.
At the time of writing, only one tracker appeared to be still tracking the torrent (a 645mb RAR archive), which could be a risky business indeed. Sources told TorrentFreak that the leak is believed to have occurred when Jackson’s Neverland Ranch was undergoing “financial reorganization” earlier in 2009. Indeed, that same “re-organization” resulted in Jackson losing control of his famous sequin glove and the robotic head from his movie, Moonwalker. The auctioning of these items is scheduled to take place April 22nd and is the subject of a Jackson lawsuit.
Nearly 2000 people have downloaded the torrent already, and the comments on Mininova suggest that it is indeed the real deal. Michael Jackson’s management was contacted for a comment, but thus far we haven’t received a reply.
More updates as we get them.
Update: The torrent contains only 74 tracks, not 100 as previously reported. Many tracks are simply numbered rather than named, but others have titles including Past Friends, Tears Don’t Change A Thing, Next Time Like the Last and Growing With the Truth.
74 unreleased Michael Jackson tracks
Previously: Private BitTorrent Trackers Face Credit Crunch
Next: Warner Bros. Acquires The Pirate Bay
63 Responses
FIRST
JACKSON FAILS AGAIN
link or stfu
This makes the Chinese Democracy leak look a bit miserable. Better warm a cell up next to Kevin Cogill’s, the feds are coming.
There were rumors about this on IRC earlier, definately not a scene rls
Is there any way to play these files from the rar before the d/l finishes? I got 72% but I think the tracker went down :/
April Fools! lol
HAHAHAHAHA!
Hehe nice one, fell for it :-)
I hope one or more of those 2000 people puts it back out there!
nice one!
;)
lolzn 4.1!
No, #1, *you* fail! I almost believed it before reading and expecting a handful of songs, but a hundred recorded but unreleased was totally outrageous. :)
Ya got me. :p
torrent removed?
Is the duet with Tito in there?
@ 14 “torrent removed?”
MUAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Wow this is soo fucking funy isnt it? it isnt its just fucking lame
God damn it!! I was caught of guard because in my timezone it’s still March 31st. You win TF, but it wasn’t a fair fight.
Ahhhhhhhhh…
Can’t Find It…
Somebody please… post the link there!!!
I actually believed this article too :D lol nice job guys.
Anything anyone does today will make people scream “ahh, april fools!”.
How is unreleased stuff getting leaked hard to believe, anyway? This would just be more than usual.
the torrent has been removed
but i found this
http://mjaudio.blogspot.com/2008/05/and-now-we-bring-you-michael-jackson.html
is this something similar???????
but nice one, TF. Happy April Fools, everyone. It’s gonna be a long day…
I was about to dl it for a freind before reading the comments. I fell for last years april fools, and nearly fell for this years too :-)
I dont like april fools pranks, but it did make me smile when I realised. probably because I didn’t download this one :-))
I hate people who say FIRST but I was the FIRST to call April Fools lol
you put me in a run…
but in the end i found something
is it true? i’ve never used bittorrent, how does it works?
That’s what they call Marketing. But some people call it publicity. It was all a lie.
TorrentFreak knows not to directly link to torrents. Good joke though, really seemed legit. :P
anyway,that was funny.
lol funny good shit TF
I feel it is an Apr Fools Day
I get this Apr. 1st prank, but – Are you fucking kidding me? http://www.mininova.org/tor/240109 “We received a copyright takedown request, and removed the torrent in compliance with our copyright policy.”?? I’m not using mininova, but they reply to takedown requests? HAHAHAHAHAHA fuck mininova.
god. it wasnt funny, and im not pissed off, but god. kinda lame
Jackson should have died in the 80s. He would have a legacy worth remembering instead of being the embarrassing travesty that we see today.
Just sayin’!
lmao i started looking for about 2 minutes before i came back here and started reading the comments, i only wanted it because i always like haveing something im not ment to have:P
yeah… happy april fools
i´m just having breakfast with michael.he says it´s only 98 songs.you´ve gotta be a little more thorough in your research,freak.
hahah some fools say they dont want it then why they here, go hear Britney
I just red the comments, hah, so it was a joke?? hah, how funny
so they got all his unreleased songs but they couldnt manage to get all the pedo videos to PROVE he is a sicko
we talking about Michael Jackson the pretty little white girl or Michael Jackson the big hairy black dude? i get kungfoozed
oh i love the power of the internet and what it has unleashed upon the corporate world.
SEED ON UPLOADERS!
SEED PLEEEEEEEEEASE
Are you fucking kidding? Happy fool’s day
this won’t hurt his plan a bit, it will help by making those songs popular (with some people), and demand will be high for official ‘HD’ release.
if it not on mininova anymre where it is? i want this so much!!!
A P R I l F O O L S
i got pwned.. believed it for a good while
stupid torentfrek make me cry so sad teers. wantes this. where is joke? what funy? you not funy. you stupid.
I just read this on 1 AM april 2. So I’m officially not april fool :D
never created… more like…
ok, its the second of april now, but still… you got me. nice one. i even searched for the song names on the net. :P
Can someone please reseed this?
Yup, got me too. Been downloading for more than 10years, but this one gave me a weird feeling in my belly. Wouldnt normally give a flying F*** about downloading some tunes, but if these were to be for the kids inheritance, it did make me pause. -I did’nt bowl straight over to mininova, I have long learned to read comments, for quality/fakes/etc.. But top one TF, the only april fools today that removed me from this corporate nightmare, if only for a few minutes :)
This is obviously a falsehood.
BTW, you have his childrens’ ages wrong.. Prince was born in Feb 1996. Obviously, he’s 13. You’ve got Paris right, but “Blanket,” born in 2002, should be around 7 by now.
Anyone who has such a lack of attention to detail cannot be trusted as a credible news source. Sorry.
Ah! Ye got meh…
DId get me for a while… i wanted it so bad. but it wouldnt have gone on bittorrent first it would be all on the news and stuff’ so yeahh.. got me!! :P
You got me (sorta)! :P I didn’t download it, but I totally believed it. xP
You ruined the illusion when you posted a link to the file though. I’ve only been viewing TorrentFreak for a few months now, but never seen a direct link to a torrent. :P
Oh. And I always read comments before downloading any torrent. ;P
Good one TF.
Are you people dense? THIS IS NOT A JOKE. The april fools comments are from idiots, or from Jackson people trying to cover it up. duh
haha “jackson people trying to cover it up”. Get a life !
He had his stretch. but so did guns and roses.. and … and …
Highly overrated that michael jackson
i got fooled 5 days late :|
lmao, I also was fooled. Dam, I should of seen that coming…
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