Madonna has revealed her dismay over the fact that her latest album Rebel Heart was leaked ahead of its official release. She has described the leak as “artistic rape” and though that may sound a bit dramatic, it probably accurately encapsulates the feelings that artists that have been through similar things go through.

Whether you love or hate her, it can’t be denied that over her long career in the music business, Madonna has honed her skills in such a way that very few people in the industry achieve, making her worthy of the title “artist”. You don’t do that well in the industry without a lot of care and love being poured into your craft and the fact that her official release date was taken away from her was probably devastating for Madonna.

The situation was also rather more dire for Madonna in this case as not only was it a case of the album being leaked but to add insult to injury, thirteen unfinished demos were leaked. This means that anyone who did hear the album before its official release probably would have been sorely disappointed in what they heard.

When speaking about the leak and her feelings towards it, Madonna said: “I intended to think about things, choose things more slowly - the whole process. Then I got forced into putting everything out, and now I'm trying to catch up with myself.

“What started out as an invigorating, life-enhancing, joyous experience evolved into something quite crazy. A strange artistic process, but a sign of the times. We're all digital, we're all vulnerable and everything's instant - so instant. Instant success and instant failure. Instant discovery, instant destruction, instant construction. It's as splendid and wonderful as it is devastating. Honestly, to me it's the death of being an artist in many ways.”

In a lot of ways, she is right. The digital age has completely changed the face of music, whether that be for better or for worse however, it simply means that artists must adapt to keep up with the changes. Madonna has always been well known for her ability to change herself to stay ahead of other artists and remain on trend and the fact that she seems to have been caught out on this occasion is quite sad but also indicative of how much the music industry has changed in recent years.

Maybe it is a sign that Madonna must finally step aside and let newer artists, with a better understanding of how social marketing works take the stage.