A Story – Pirates And Music

Written by Marc Metekohy on September 26th, 2009 | 2 comments

Lily Allen, an pop-music English singer songwriter, quite made the headlines this week. On her personal anti-piracy weblog she announced:

I have not renegotiated my record contract and have no plans to make another record

Shortly after this, for many fans crushing news, she completely deleted her blog. Her battle for anti-piracy now got answered by an ironic open letter from a former fan.

The song actually holds some views, both artists and music labels could learn from.

Background

Piracy and file-sharing has been a hot topic for debate in and around the music industry for years. Not to mention the lawsuits thrown around. One of the first massive file-sharing programs on the internet was Napster. Loved by the masses, it was used to download and share all sorts of files, both free and copyrighted. But after a lawsuit from Metallica in 2000 the end of Napster was near.

Interesting in this case was the ability to adjust to changing environments, but not by the music industry but by the masses. People just flocked to another program or website. Their demand for (free) file-sharing was thriving and could not be stopped.

New opportunities

Artists saw the change happening and some listened to their fans while others remained with the old. A great example of change is the band Radiohead who in 2007 launched their new album In Rainbows online and asked listeners, fans or not, to pay for the album whatever they were willing to pay. Another great example is Sellaband; a site launched in 2006 where (beginning) artists can sign-up and raise money from their fans in order to record a professional album.

Future

It is hard to tell what the future will hod, but suffice to say the music industry has to change their old model of sales and find a new one. There has been a rise of live performances and shows around the world from artists to get revenue through ticket sales. James Blunt recently choose side of Lily Allen:

Sir, I want to put my hand up in support of Lily Allen. She’s asking British musicians to galvanise over a serious crime: the death of a great British industry — our music business. The world over, people are stealing music in its millions in the form of illegal file-sharing. It’s easy to do, and has become accepted by many, but people need to know that it is destroying people’s livelihoods and suffocating emerging British artists

But as Dan Bull, the creator of the open letter to Lily Allen fittingly wrote:

When you’re between the devil and the deep blue sea, you need to stop worrying about pirates, and adjust your sails

I am willing to pay for music and not get my files through illegal files-sharing, but change in the music industry has to get faster.

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