Taylor Swift's new album, '1989,' leaked

Things were a little easier to control in 1989.

On the heels of stellar reviews for her new, '80s-infused pop album, 1989, Taylor Swift and her label, Big Machine Records, spent much of Friday waging a modern war over widespread leaks as tracks hit a variety of music-sharing sites.

With Swift's new, heavily promoted album set for release Monday, Friday launched with a scramble: The first song to hit YouTube was Blank Space, which was yanked by Big Machine within hours.

N ew York magazine reports the leak could have stemmed from Target because hackers nabbed not only the 13 main tracks off 1989, but the 19 songs specially crafted for the Target edition.

(USA TODAY has reached out to Target, Big Machine Records and Swift for comment.)

This is hardly new ground: Swift's last album, Red, leaked in full in 2012. Back then, it had little impact: Red went on to sell 1.23 million copies in its first week.

Music experts don't think the leak will affect sales this time, either.

"Taylor Swift's fans are uncommonly loyal," says Anthony DeCurtis, contributing editor at Rolling Stone. "I doubt that anyone who wanted to buy the album would be dissuaded by the leak."

But 2014 is a different landscape than even two years ago, thanks to the growth of streaming services such as Pandora and Spotify, says Ian Drew, US Weekly's entertainment director. Which makes 1989 one to watch, leak or no.

"The whole Taylor Swift album release is going to be a litmus test for the whole industry," he says. "No album has gone platinum this year — even the mighty Beyonce's — because no one is buying albums anymore. It's all streaming."

Contributing: Patrick Ryan, Brian Mansfield