Loyal fans helped free Fiona Apple’s CD

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Who leaked the CD?
Then, a few months later, she got word that someone had posted an early Brion version of the record on the Internet; freefiona.com emerged, decrying Sony for not releasing it.

Elizondo says the leak was “disconcerting at first. I had spent a lot of time working with Fiona on something that she was excited about ... but at the same token, I’m assuming that the motive of the fans or whoever leaked it was trying to help her.”

“I was freaked out about it,” Apple says. “I felt guilty; I felt really moved that people cared about me that much, but I’m still kind of paralyzed because I can’t do it the way I want to do it, and I opted not to talk to anybody because I thought it might [mess] up my chances of getting things to go right.”

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After the issue caught the mainstream media’s attention and became a rallying cry on the Internet, Apple says Sony told her that she could do whatever she wanted with the album (though Sony maintains they would have released the album anyway).

Now, with the Elizondo version finally released, Apple is excited again — ready to embrace life outside her bubble, and excited to be back at work with her music again.

And she credits freefiona.com for helping her get to that point.

“I’m totally in awe of them. I’m in awe of a small group of people that organizes to get something done,” she says. “Look at me — I can’t even tell you what I’ve been doing for the past six years, and it’s my album!”

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