The Wall Street Journal - not normally your first stop for music news - has picked up an interesting story.  It seems that Buckcherry - the hard rock band best known for their hit "Lit Up" (I love the cocaine, I love the cocaine) - had a song form their upcoming album leaked online and were quick to complain about it.  However, the webmaster of torrentfreak.com tracked the IP address of the leaking computer back to the band's manager.  At first glance it seems like espionage - the band's manager leaks a potential revenue-earning song for free on the Internet.  However, it appears that the leak may have been the best thing to happen to that song and the manager, well, he might just be the next big thinker in the music industry. From the article...

While entertainment companies decry filesharing, they nevertheless frequently use it as a tool to market music or gauge the popularity of their offerings. Radio stations use information on which songs are most trafficked online when deciding what to play. And it is increasingly common for musicians and their record companies to give away some or all of an album online before its commercial release, albeit usually through their own Web sites, rather than through filesharing services.

After "Too Drunk. . ." appeared on the Internet early last month, Buckcherry wrote in a July 3 MySpace posting that "we hate it when this s- happens, because we want our FANS to have any new songs first." In that post, the band provided a link that allows fans to download a copy of the song, and soon after posted a music video on its Web site. A July 22 news release from Atlantic quoted the band making the same complaint.

The song quickly gained traction on the Internet, and some tech-savvy fans grew suspicious that the leaked song and the complaints had been a successful exercise in generating publicity.

Full Article

So there you have it.  A bold new marketing strategy that intentionally leaks songs.  It's so contrary to what we've seen over the past few years, it may just work!