diditleak – RIP
p2pnet view Music | P2P:- Below are the first four new entries on Twitter page diditleak at 4:00 am Pacific in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
- Nick Jonas & The Administration – Who I Am Due out February 2 2010 about 11 hours ago from Tweetie
- : Massive Attack – Heligoland already leaked, due out February 8th. 7:02 PM Jan 22nd from twitterfeed
- Rob Zombie – Hellbilly Deluxe 2 due out February 2 6:50 PM Jan 22nd from Tweetie
- : Hadouken! – For The Masses, due out January 25th. 5:32 PM Jan 22nd from twitterfeed
There was another post before that - : Vampire Weekend – Contra leaked, due out January 12th. 4:43 PM Jan 5th from twitterfeed.
It’s the last entry on http://diditleak.co.uk/ —-
—- the last entry because Alan Carton (right), who ran both sites, had died of cancer at the age of 23.
On January 5, @diditleak went dark
Alan was a Canadian from Edmonton, Alberta, and as Chris Weingarten points out in his Village Voice article >>>
For two years, the Twitter account @diditleak was the secret weapon of online listeners and music critics alike. In real time, the account, which ultimately garnered over 11,500 followers, announced whenever a digital copy of a particularly desirable record first hit the Internet. For that it became a beloved resource of torrent-hungry music fans and writers angling for first listens. Using email tips and message-board-scouring alchemy, @diditleak seemed to know leaks better than anybody on Earth.
The feed’s creator was Alan Carton, a then-21-year-old Vancouver film student who worked on the site in total anonymity. On January 5, @diditleak went dark. Its creator’s name is only being revealed now because on January 16th, after a long hospital stay, Alan Carton died. He was 23. In his final days, Carton worked on @diditleak from his hospital bed, posting tips about the new Yeasayer record at a time when doctors were saying he could lapse into a coma at any minute. His story–as told by his mother Jennifer to Voice–is unlikely, to say the least.
Or as joshuakatz in San Francisco puts it in his tweetmeme post, “Fantastic article about how one cancer stricken 23 yr. old helped upset the music biz status quo.“
‘ … immolation? banishment from the promo list? a spanking? … ‘
Mike Riggs on the Washington City Paper’s says he began following @DidItLeak during his first month as City Lights editor.
“I was terrible at keeping up with release calendars, and Carton’s simple feed—no jokes, no politics, no nonsense—was like a release calendar that maintained itself,” he says, going on >>>
Fast-forward a year: I received Brand New’s Daisy five weeks before its release date, along with a very stern (but ambiguous) warning about the consequences of leaking (immolation? banishment from the promo list? a spanking?). And even though my feelings about Brand New frontman Jesse Lacey are such that I have never wanted his stuff to leak—in fact, I wanted no one to hear the album until we could all hear it at the same time—I knew that Daisy would leak. The big ones always leak. Always, always, always.
So, as the weeks leading to Daisy’s release elapsed, I began to follow Carton’s feed with increasing anxiety. When will it leak? Oh God, oh God, When will it leak? What will people say? Oh God, oh God. On Aug. 24, Carton published a short post in the same format I’d seen hundreds of times: “Brand New – Daisy leaked, due out September 22nd.”
“Like a good, objective music critic, I freaked,” says Riggs. “Cursed the name of whichever writer leaked the album, then spent the rest of the day trolling the message boards at AbsolutePunk.net, looking for haters to school on the merits of the new Brand New.”
‘ … as a music writer, it was a valuable tool … ‘
Says Sandra Sperounes on the Edmonton Journal >>>
Carton, 23, ran diditleak.co.uk, an anonymous website devoted to posting information about the latest album leaks. (For me, as a music writer, it was a valuable tool — because, to be honest, some record labels are still ridiculously slow when it comes to sending advance copies of albums.) Despite the UK suffix, he was based in Edmonton. I think I was one of the few who knew his real identity — over the last year, Carton e-mailed me a few times, tipping me off about album leaks and offering to work together. (He never specified how, but I think he wanted to swap tips.) I tried to convince him to let me write about him — without blowing his cover — but he never gave me a straight answer, letting me dangle for weeks or months before sending me another vague message. I don’t know if his reluctance to speak was due to his illness — he never mentioned his health — or simply because he wanted to remain anonymous.
‘I think it’s time …’
Adds Chris in the Village Voice >>>
He told his mother that if a doctor informed her he was going to die, he’d prefer to remain oblivious–he wanted to go on living. After he got out of the hospital, he went on trips with his friends and mom to New York, California, and Ireland. He got a new tumor on his hip and after October never walked again. By December he was 85 pounds and barely hanging on, but Carton and @diditleak persevered. He fell out of his wheelchair and bloodied his head. He started getting confused, dizzy, antsy and agitated. He started saying things and he didn’t know what they meant.
On January 5, Carton added his final post — a notification about the leak of the new Vampire Weekend, currently the number one album in the country. For weeks, he hadn’t wanted to go to the hospital unless it was absolutely necessary, but now he looked up at his mother at 2 a.m. and said, “I think it’s time.” His lung had filled with fluid and his body was going into panic mode. The hospital filled him with morphine and drained his lung. On Saturday, January 16, Adam Carton passed away at the age of 23
“Now @diditleak is quiet, stuck on January 5,” said Chris.
But he was wrong and on his Twitter page today posts:
Stay tuned.
(Cheers, JP)
..… and identi.ca
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Village Voice – The Life and Death of Alan Carton, 23, the RIAA-Defying Creator of @diditleak, January 22, 2010, January 22, 2010Washington City Paper – R.I.P. Alan Carton: “Did It Leak?” Struck Fear Into Hearts of Publicists, January 22, 2010
Edmonton Journal – R.I.P. Alan Carton, January 22, 2010
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January 24th, 2010 at 10:13 am
I had never heard of Alan but as a Canadian I am proud of him. He was only one person but he “helped upset the music biz status quo.” I believe that is something you can relate to Jon.
Rest in peace Alan. Thank you
January 24th, 2010 at 10:22 am
@ Amelie
To me this also tells another story — just how dependent mainstream reporters are on us lowly bloggers.
What would they do without us?
I’m proud of Alan too.
Cheers!
January 24th, 2010 at 10:49 am
I’m very sorry to hear about this. I never heard of him before this post, but it’s always very sad when someone dies of cancer, especially at the young age of 23. Puts one’s own problems into perspective, doesn’t it?
RIP Alan and thanks for the difference you made. (Raises glass in honour)
January 24th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
He’s probably an unsung hero in the entire 20 years of my existence. I had never heard of him until now and I’m sad that he’s gone. His legacy will live on, however. RIP Alan and thanks for everything.
January 24th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Living in Canada obviously has its advantages. As the admin of a major leak (info-only) site, Alan Carton was lucky not to get busted (like ISOnews owner -and US resident- David Rocci, who was sent to prison for his sideline business of selling modchips, but whose targeting by US federal authorities was due to his suspected connections with actual leakers).
The recording industry can now start uncorking the champagne.
January 24th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
^^ The recording industry can continue to go to hell.
“Living in Canada obviously has its advantages.” Can Obama shut down the government whenever he feels like it?
http://www.p2pnet.net/story/34466
Cheers!
January 24th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
“To me this also tells another story — just how dependent mainstream reporters are on us lowly bloggers.”
Ya! Now the news are on internet and the mainstream is trying to play catch up.
January 24th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Dying at 23 is a big huge tragedy of unwanted separation regardless the cause.
My salute to an hero!
Thank you for contributing to the cause against the corporations of parasites!
See you in the next reality Alan!
January 24th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
Don’t get me wrong, here. This is terribly sad, particularly for his parents, but all any of us have is the one second in time we live in and it seems towards the end of his life, here, Alan made every one of his seconds count.
Cheers!
March 2nd, 2010 at 1:27 pm
I have taken over Alan’s legacy. I have kept diditleak going on a new site, http://www.leaksallday.com – I would say more but it would come off as spam. Check us out.