The music industry distributes many pre-release copies of up-coming releases to media reviewers, radio DJ's etc. in order to build publicity in advance of the official release date. These pre-release copies are distributed on CD's or electronically. Unfortunately, there have been occurrences where some of this pre-release material has reached illegal download sites before the official release date. This has an obvious adverse effect on subsequent sales. In order to offset this many of the major music companies are using Audio watermarking for Forensic Tracking in this area. This works as follows:

• Each copy of a pre-release is individually watermarked.
• The information in the watermark refers to the recipient of a particular copy.
• Any leaked material can be traced to the recipient, who can be held responsible for the leak.

Since the music industry has adopted Pre-release Forensic Tracking the incidents of pre-release material leaking out to illegal download sites has fallen dramatically.

Key Benefits

• Pre-release recipients can be held responsible for the material they receive.
• Dramatically reduced numbers of leaked pre-release material.
• Expected sales from release date maintained.