Taylor Swift's 'The Life of a Showgirl' Appears to Have Leaked Online a Day Early

As is the case with every Taylor Swift album, fans have been hotly anticipating The Life of a Showgirl since the moment it was announced. The album, which is set to be released on Oct. 3, has been the subject of rampant speculation among fans as to what it would be about and whether it would have a defining tone or theme.

Now, some fans have gotten the chance to hear songs early, albeit in low fidelity. The album appears to have leaked online just a day ahead of schedule. Here's what we know about how that happened.

Although it seems like the tracks have leaked, no one is sure exactly how it happened. One rumor posted on Bluesky suggests that someone in Michigan got the album early without fully understanding what it was, and decided to sell it.

"A guy in Michigan got a fluke preorder and put it up for sale on Facebook for $25," Dave Moore wrote on the social media app.

"A nearby Swiftie bought it but didn't own a CD player, so she got one from Walmart, then realized you can't burn files to a computer this way so is just playing them in a Discord voice channel for thousands of people," he continued.

Whether that's true or not is difficult to say, but the audio recordings that have been circulating suggest that the leaker simply recorded the songs after playing them through a speaker.

Although it hasn't been officially released or reviewed yet, fans don't seem to be super thrilled with the album itself.

"Her writing has unfortunately gotten worse over the years. Everyone always says one of her worst lyrics is 'with no one around to tweet it' from the leakes[sic], but that's entirely how she writes now. Very hamfisted and ineloquent compared to the significantly tighter stuff earlier in her career," one person wrote on Reddit.

"I’m just going to say that I used to go to Taylor for her lyrics. This album has some of the clunkiest and cringiest lines she has written to date, trying to match the way Travis speaks and it’s terrible. Yes, she’s always been cringe at heart and I’ve loved some of those moments, but this is another level," another added.

There were some people who enjoyed the album, though.

"wtf I’m on track 2 and I’m loving it what are people talking about," one person wrote.

Of course, all this is contingent on the fact that the album itself is not officially out yet, and people are listening to fairly low-fidelity recordings of particular songs.

We'll see whether this reaction holds up when the album officially releases. Until then, Swifties will have to decide whether they want to listen to the leaks or get upset about them, and also what they think about her music itself.