Five years ago, Beyoncé “changed the game with that digital drop”, as she would later describe it, when she released a surprise album on 13 December 2013. On Thursday night, fans wondered if history was repeating itself when two 10-track projects accredited to Queen Carter – titled Have Your Way and Back Up, Rewind – appeared on Spotify and Apple Music.
They were, however, swiftly removed – apparently unauthorised leaks appearing to compile old songs and unreleased demos. Representatives for Beyoncé and Spotify offered no comment. The Guardian has contacted Apple Music.
One song, Hey Goldmember, is taken from the singer’s film debut in Austin Powers in Goldmember, released in 2002 – and presumably, not material that Beyoncé, now critically acclaimed for her 2013 self-titled album and 2016’s Lemonade, would be keen to revisit. In June this year, Beyoncé and husband Jay-Z, billed as the Carters, released a surprise album, Everything Is Love.
Beyoncé was not the only musician affected by an unauthorised leak to streaming services yesterday. An album titled Comethru, credited to Sister Solana, was attributed to Grammy-nominated R&B singer SZA.
She addressed the swiftly removed leak in an Instagram story: “These are random scratches from 2015. Def not new new! But … creative? And Scary?”
In November, unreleased and obscure music by Ariana Grande appeared on Spotify credited to the name Zandhr. It was quickly removed. Grande is imminently expected to release a follow-up to this year’s Sweetener, her first album since a suicide bomber attacked her concert in Manchester in May 2017.
