 To prevent Channel Orange from leaking onto the Internet , Ocean planned to release it digitally one week earlier than its publicly announced date . He was inspired by Jay @-@ Z and Kanye West , who prevented their 2011 album Watch the Throne from leaking by announcing several misleading release dates . On June 8 , Ocean announced a July 17 release date and released a trailer for the album directed by Nabil Elderkin . On July 9 , he made his television debut on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and performed " Bad Religion " with backing from the show 's house band The Roots and a strings section . The show announced the album 's actual release date and vendor , Universal Music Group , who made it available on July 10 as a digital download on iTunes . Ocean said at the time , " I haven 't even held one in my hands ... The [ CDs ] are done , but when we sent them in , they were locked down at the manufacturer . They haven 't left . They never went on trucks [ to stores ] because that 's where things leak . " 
