Personally, I was afraid this would happen. Only minutes after the streaming session for J. Cole’s Born Sinner finished, the album itself suddenly leaked to the internet in its entirety. Apparently, someone at one of the many listening session locations decided to rip the album from the LISNR app and then upload it to the web somehow. Eventually, the album went viral.
It should come as no surprise as albums nowadays are known to leak before their official release date. But even then, many Cole fans find themselves either happy or upset that this happened. This might end up hurting J. Cole’s goal of selling more records than Kanye, as Cole himself might have been the cause for this sudden leakage. Peep his own personal reaction:
All love. Outta my hands. June 18th
— J. Cole (@JColeNC) June 7, 2013
He seems to be taking it well. Will this cause a decrease in sales? Or will it cause sales to increase? Only time will tell on June 18th.
I think the people who were going to buy it are going to buy it anyway.. There are always possible to download for free, and the fans of J Cole are going to buy it if it leaks or not. The people who just want to check it out will check it out, and not buy it unless they find it really good.!