The album, which doesn't hit stores until April 21, is one of the most sought-after prizes right now on the Internet, and according to my sources, fake copies of the album have been circulating like wildfire. But what do true-blue Madonna-ites actually get when they try to download one of these fakes? A foul-mouthed tirade from the Queen of Pop herself!

Not only do they not get to hear the highly anticipated tunes, but what they end up receiving is an audio clip of one peeved Madonna shaming them with, "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

According to other media sources, the tight security goes even further with members of the music press. Promotional copies of American Life -- used for album reviews by journalists -- are not expected to be shipped out until the time of the actual release.

With all of the security, you have to wonder how the real files got on the file sharing services. Look a little closer to home Madonna.

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I'm glad I don't listen or care about mainstream music. I download music from bands that care about me and the way I find good music. Example, the band Raised Fist, the album Dedication, the song Dedication, the lyric, "Let me dedicate this song to those who downloaded this song as a mp3"!!!!!!!

:first post:

I certainly don't want to offend Madonna. So I promise not to ever listen to her music again. I think I have a CD here somewhere that I actually purchased.

I'll go gouge the tracks and throw it away right now to make sure that no one else hears it by accident, either.

why don't i care? oh wait, i hate madonna, her music sucks!

Well it certainly will be more entertaining to downloaders than the usual static or whatever else the RIAA has been using.

HAHAHAH I love this!

I hope Junior Vasquez remixes her into ye another dance hit.

She's retarded, I swear. I suppose being richer than God tends to disassociate one from us commoners. She's a tool.

Man, that's low. I mean, at least the MP3s of Godsmack's new one had music in them. You just had to ignore the "Property of Vivendi/Universal Records" tag that was inserted at random.

Fortunately I'm thick skinned and this crap just bounces off of me. I'll probably eventually buy the CD (go ahead, shoot me) but it'll have to wait until I have money to buy things with.

to madonna and her record company(ies):
fortunatly (for now), this story will not make national news... otherwise your drop in publicity will make the dixie chicks' drop look like a little dip on the sales chart

BTW, go download Raised Fist - Dedication !! And get Illustration of Desperation also.

Svensta brings up a great idea: since Madge has placed those files into the public domain, it'd be killer for someone to remix them into something new, something far more interesting than "American Life." Something like Negativland's "U2" or the old "Bonzo Goes to Washington" thing. Hmmm.....

You can download her new single on freakin MTV.com...

Its nice to see the industry trying something that doesn't involve sueing people .

Hint to RIAA: You can make WMA files that launch popups when ran. How about makeing some that launch musicunited and putting those up? Everyone wins. You get more people viewing the website, while I get to see everyone abandoning Windows Media in favor of open technology

Madonna's music career is going to be following her acting career.

What? That didnt happen yet?

Nobody can ever possibly say that Madonna's new music is as good as her old days. She sucks now.

I can name many bands that their music turned to suck and then they blame piracy for lost sales, rather then the proper reason of talentless acts.

goldenpi, nice plan, but flawed. WMA's are system specific. Unless they've changed WMA's, that's not gonna work.

im with gdziemann; i think ill just get rid of any madonna music i have so as not to offend her holiness [sarcasm]

Wow!

Madonna cusses out her fans and excpects them to stop downloading because of it. Not only would I continue downloading but I would make a message against her and spread it through p2p.

Hail Mp3!!!

This evidently shows Madonna's true colors; i.e. her elitist contempt of her fans to such an extent that she would make such a blanket assumption. Also, can you say "useful idiot"?

As I work in the audio and video industries, I remember that some ex-clients had the same type of paranoid distrust of everybody. Just shows the insidiously destructive consequences manifested from such an attitude.

kneo24 - WMA is a surprisingly complicated and buggy format.

The windows media formats (WMA, WMV and ASF) are in fact identical. The only difference is that WMA files dont have a video stream, but you could add one if you wanted and media player would think it was a WMV.

A plain WMA file is basicly a header and a (packeted) stream of audio in a MS-propritary codec protected by various copyrights and patents. On its own these are a sort of functional equivilent of MP3, just less open and difficult to convert to other formats.

The system-specific part of WMA, which can also apply to WMV or ASF, is part of the WMDRM system. It involves taking an ordinary WMA, encrypting the stream, and adding another header object which contains usage rules. Without that, WM files play on any computer.

WM files can hold audio, video and scripting streams. The scripting streams were intended for tasks such as syncronising a slide show to a presentation, but its also capable of launching popup windows. Popups can also be launched from a DRM header by specifying a site to get the license from.

Madonna needs to make pop music again...not the VH1 crap she's been doin.

Well, I stand corrected.

Madonna - #1 you suck
#2 you're not a musician
#3 you have no talent

why do you continue to put out records? Your "product" sucks
give it up

I can admit it- yes MADONNA I do like your old music, and even some of your new music. still do. I do have to say that you are a bitch for what you said to you so called FANS. yes, I will get over this, but for now- please let me vent. Try to remember back when you were a normal person, back before money turned you into the semi-sellout that you are- dont feel bad, I think money does that to everyone. anyway, remember when you used to be creative. Ok, I have one question for you. What the fuck are YOU doing? why do you of all people care if a few people are downloading music from the internet- do you really think you can controll that, because you can't, nobody can. try thinking before you speak. oh, yeah, what would your mother think of you??

Is this a bad publicity is better than no publicity thing- then I might understand why you are acting this way over a few pennies?

WMA is a Microsoft technology. WMA is buggy and complicated. How is this "surprising?"