Usher's album illegally downloaded 500,000 times

R&B star Usher's new album was illegally downloaded more than half a million times before its release this week - costing the star a fortune in royalties.

'Here I Stand' appeared online in its entirety a week before it was officially launched, and internet programs managed to track the number of times it was downloaded, reports CMU Music.

The album and individual leaked tracks were downloaded a total of 554,716 times via BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file sharing application, alone.