Shelved David Bowie record unceremoniously leaked online

Deciding a finished (or nearly finished) record won't see the light of day can be a willing if painful act. An artist may not be satisfied with the end result of their musical labors, or feels releasing the work will damage more than aid their career. Other times, a record company may decide an album just doesn't meet its criteria -- the artist went a little crazy experimenting with obscure foreign instruments or brought on Swiss yodelers for every track, or both. Whatever the case, eating the cost of production alone turns out a better option than shouldering the financial burden of a failed commercial release.

While it's rare for an album not to see some type of official release, it does happen - even to the biggest artists. Music legend David Bowie learned this the hard way recently.

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Photo: David Shankbone

Bowie's unreleased record "Toy" hit internet file-sharing sites early this week. The album, originally scheduled to release in 2002, was scuttled with little in the way of explanation. Common conjecture, however, pointed to business-side squabbles according to Guardian.co.uk: arguments over royalty rates and who owned what sunk "Toy."

Tech site TorrentFreak alleged it uprooted the name (well, online name) of the person responsible for the leak: Brigstow, from Bristol. Unsurprisingly, he claims to love the Thin White Duke and says the unscheduled uploading was meant as a counter to those selling copies of the album on eBay. He told the site, "Myself and a few friends were very angry that certain people only seem to want to profit from recordings like the 'Toy' album, so when we saw the eBay auction and heard someone else selling discs for $55, I decided to upload it and give it away."

A noble intention perhaps, but in doing so Brigstow essentially affected one fairly important person's ability to turn a profit from the album: David Bowie.

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Of course, it can be argued that the album was never meant to be sold in the first place, thus the leak isn't actually harming anyone's bottom line. It can also be argued that despite a nearly 10-year period collecting dust 'Toy' wasn't dead; just buried. An official release at some point in the future wasn't an impossibility.

The release of "Toy" is a boon for hardcore fans, as Bowie hasn't released an album since 2003. Rolling Stone reached out to Bowie for a comment, but received none. We can only assume he doesn't think the leak is such a sweet thing.

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