"
The album's
internet leak on June 12, 2007, was notable in that it was leaked in three song clusters over a period of weeks. Geologist wrote on the Collected Animals board that the first batch of promotional copies were
watermarked, and that each journalist's name would be digitally embedded in any extracted files.
[6] On
June 19,
2007, a letter from the band's publicist was sent to music journalists regarding the leaking of the first three songs:
[7] Last week three tracks from Animal Collective's new album leaked. Within minutes we were able to track the leak to a writer's CD. That person got in more trouble than you care to hear about and was almost fired. The person was also forced to write an apology letter to an entire staff of people and the head of Domino Records along with other penance.
Panda Bear talked with Shout Mouth regarding the band's thoughts on the leak:
[8] The only thing we’re really upset about with the leak is that it’s only parts of it. I think there are six songs out there now. People aren’t even able to get the full experience of the album, which bums us all out quite a bit. So if you’re listening leakers [speaking directly into the tape recorder], put up those other three songs, man, pronto."