Frank Ocean to BBC: ‘Channel Orange’ released early to beat leaks

Add “unorthodox release scheduling� to the many reasons why Frank Ocean is likely the most exciting artist in music right now. In an interview with the BBC Radio 1’s Zane Lowe, the avant-R&B; singer-songwriter attested that the sudden appearance of his album “Channel Orange� on iTunes a week before its scheduled release on July 17 was no accident.

“It was actually the plan all along,� he told Lowe on Thursday, according to MTV.“I kinda wanted to mirror what ... Jay and Kanye did with ‘Watch the Throne,’ preventing the leak by staggering digital and physical dates.�

Album leaks can preemptively steal thunder from a major release, so Ocean joined his peers West and Jay-Z in beating pirates to the punch by putting it online before its official in-store date. “Watch the Throne� famously hit iTunes three days ahead of schedule for the same reasons.

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Preventing leaks was such a priority for his label Def Jam that not even Ocean has handled a physical copy, he told Lowe. “�I haven’t even held one in my hands...I’m actually still designing the package for vinyl. The physical [CDs] are done, but when we sent them in, they were locked down at the manufacturer. They haven’t left. They never went on trucks [to stores] because that’s where things leak.�

The early reception for “Channel Orange� -- and for Ocean’s unexpected revelation that his first serious romance was with another man -- has been uniformly positive, with a knockout performance of his single “Bad Religion� on Jimmy Fallon’s TV show leading up to his album-release set on the 17th at the Wiltern.

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