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NCT 2021 'Universe': Full album leaked on JOOX as Haechan and fans panic

The full group NCT 2021 were supposed to release the album 'Universe' on December 14

It looks like NCT’s third full group comeback in 2021 isn’t going too smoothly. Set to be released on December 14, the album ‘Universe’ was accidentally leaked on the Chinese music streaming platform JOOX. Whether it is in K-pop or any other music industry, artists and their producers spend months and sometimes years working on their albums. And with platforms like Spotify that has made music legally free, a majority of listeners do not resort to piracy anymore in this day and age. 

NCT 2021 is the group’s third comeback despite their debut in 2016. This is because of their infinite concept with SM constantly adding new members to the group that at the moment they have 23 members. With everyone being separated into different sub-units, fans love the full group comebacks since it allows their favorite members to interact with each other and see a blend of each sub-unit’s different music styles. But the NCT 2021 ‘Universe’ comeback is not going how fans expected.

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NCT 2021 ‘Universe’ gets leaked on JOOX

We first had only 21 NCT members since Winwin is in China filming while Lucas is on hiatus since SM has still not resolved his dating scandal. ‘Universe’s tracklist, their sub-units and the jewel case CD were accidentally uploaded earlier by NCT’s store. NCT 2021 teasers were uploaded late or on the wrong social media account. And now, the actual album was uploaded by JOOX days before the release.

Haechan responds to the leak

On December 8, fans were shocked when the Chinese music platform JOOX accidentally leaked the whole album of NCT 2021. ‘Universe’ was on the site for a while before the platform realized its mistake and took it down. In that time, we had trolls and inquisitive fans listening to it, downloading it and resharing it and spreading it on social media. NCT’s member Haechan came online on the Bubble app and begged fans not to give in, “No!!! Don’t listen…”

With Twitter’s easy search bar, the leaked album was available for whoever looked for it. Fans banded together to divert attention by clearing the searches. They also reported fan accounts that were not cooperating and spreading the leaked album like user @parkjisug and user @SoCgvsoqpsnxkw. In turn, JOOX ended up trending as fans tweeted their annoyance at the platform.

‘Let’s respect the hard work’

One surprised fan tweeted, “PEOPLE STILL USE JOOX? 2022 IS 24 DAYS AWAY BIHHH.” Another NCTzen posted, “Literally whats wrong with this era? from when the accidentally uploaded the jewel case ver, posted the earthquake teaser late, uploaded the universe teasers on the wrong acc, and now the whole album got leaked and have been released on joox before it was supposed to.” They also banded together to stop the spread, “Let's mass report the account(s) that are spreading the songs. If u know one, feel free to drop the @.” Another fan commented, “Even haechan knew it was leaked :/ please dont listen to it and wait for the day it actually releases. lets respect the hard work that the boys put into it.”