Two ‘New’ Beyonce Albums Hit Spotify, Apple Music – Then Vanish Hours Later

Sorry, BeyHive, it was just old songs and demos instead of an official release

Beyonce Coachella 2018
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Two “new” Beyonce albums hit Apple Music and Spotify on Thursday night — sending fans into a frenzy online — only to be removed hours later.

Instead of being another surprise offering, the albums, released under the name “Queen Carter” on Spotify and Apple Music, turned out to be leaked compilations of old songs and demos. The leaked albums, titled “Have Your Way” and “Back Up, Rewind,” included one song that dated as far as Beyonce’s appearance in 2002’s “Austin Powers in Goldmember,” along with other tracks that had leaked online before.

Spotify and Apple Music didn’t immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment Friday on how the albums were briefly available.

Beyonce wasn’t the only star that “released” old material, either. A leaked album from SZA recently went up on Apple Music and Spotify under the name “Sister Solana.” Terrence “Punch” Henderson, president of Top Dawg Entertainment, tweeted Thursday the SZA album contained “old songs” that “were stolen and leaked.”

The leaked Beyonce albums were conspicuous in that they weren’t exclusively released on Tidal, the Jay-Z backed streaming service. Beyonce and Jay-Z’s joint album “Everything Is Love” was a Tidal-exclusive for two days earlier this year before hitting other services.

Leaked or not, some Beyonce fans still joked online they wanted to enjoy the two bootleg albums as much as possible — while others enjoyed pointing out the tracks weren’t new at all.

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Sean Burch

Tech and business reporter • sean@thewrap.com • @SeanB44  

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