Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer Karen O has described the advance leak of the band's new album as being “a bit like when you get punched in the stomach”.

The band were forced to bring the digital release date of 'It's Blitz' forward to March 9th after it leaked online in February.

The album had originally been scheduled for release on both digital and physical formats in April.

Speaking to the BBC, Karen O said the music industry had experienced a “radical” change since their last album, 'Show Your Bones', came out in 2006.

“There's been so much radical change in the way people are receiving their music and it's snowballed since our last record,” she said, “and has been really hard for us to get our head around.”

Guitarist and keyboard player Nick Zinner said he believed the “rules and games have changed”.

“I guess the need for immediate gratification has got a lot stronger. I've found that in how I look for music too. It's how things are now,” he said.

“There's so much more music and so many more bands, and everybody's scrambling.

“All the new bands and all the bands that have been around for a while, we're all at the same level. We're all just tracks on a blog, links on a list.”

Physical copies of 'It's Blitz' will be released on April 6th in the UK and a day later in the US.

(by Jason Gregory)