Eminem CD Moved Up to Thwart Piracy

Vexed by Internet music pirates, Interscope Records will move up by one week the release of Eminem’s highly anticipated new album, which has been a sensation for more than a week among online fans swapping it illegally.

Copies of the music from “The Eminem Show” have also been spotted on New York streets in the hands of bootleg vendors.

The rapper, his manager and his label, hoping to diffuse the damage, have moved the release date up to May 28, a highly unusual move for an album with a massive marketing plan in place and expectations of being a contender for the best-selling album of 2002.

“It’s a giant decision,” an Interscope spokesman said Friday. “To move the date this far down the road is extremely unusual and a decision no one took lightly.”

To lure fans into paying for music they may have already copped from their modems, the record label will include a free DVD of music, behind-the-scenes footage and a cartoon in the first 2 million copies sold in the U.S. and in overseas markets.

The date switch and bonus disc are the most high-profile examples to date of record labels’ anxiety about online fans compromising early sales of blockbuster discs.

Albums by Korn and System of a Down are among the other high-interest releases that have had their retail debuts usurped by computer-savvy fans.

Companies have tried to combat the risk of exposure by keeping advance copies and review copies for journalists under tight wraps, often making music writers visit label offices to hear the guarded material.

Eminem’s last album, 2000’s “The Marshall Mathers LP,” sold nearly 1.8 million copies its first week in the stores. Its total U.S. sales are now at 8.7 million.