Release Date Change for Britney Spears’ New Album

Jive Records, Britney Spears’ record label, has announced they are moving up the release date for her new album, Blackout, up to October 30 (the original release date was November 13). The label says they are moving the release date up because of Internet leaks. The label also says they are doing everything possible to prevent any further illegal distribution of the new songs.

Now, while I believe that the Internet leaks are a reason for this release date change, I don’t buy that that is the entire reason. Fact is, while “Gimme More” may be selling well on iTunes (both the single and the video), the airplay at pop radio has declined dramatically over the past week or so. Add on to that all of the mess Britney’s got going on in her personal life, and it’s easy to see that Jive would like to just get the album thrown out there sooner rather than later. According to internet rumor, Jive and Britney really weren’t planning on doing any real promotion for Blackout anyway, so they might as well get it out into the marketplace as soon as possible, to capitalize on whatever momentum “Gimme More” may have left at that point.