Peter Mandelson… (strike 1)
Hello friends!
Sorry it has been such a while since the last time I forced my opinions upon you – I have had a week of gigs, followed by a week of I’m-sure-it-wasn’t-but-it-could-have-been Swine Flu, followed by a couple of days lethergy. Who would have thought that the person to kick me out of my slightly sorry for myself stupor would Peter Mandelson?!
This post is essentially a quick overview of what I have been wanting to write in more detail over the last few weeks, and hopefully will act as a more structured base to start thinking about the actual things Mr Mandelson is trying to bring in, and whether it is a good or a bad thing.
Essentially my view of filesharing is the following: For – Against – For. Let me explain slightly, hopefully this somehow will connect back to the inital conversation. As a member of an unsigned band looking for a break into the music industry I want EVERYBODY to have copies of my songs. The more the better! We ask that if possible you have a listen to the tunes, stick them on your ipod, tell some of your mates then (and most importantly) all come down and see a gig. Everyone wins – you get some nice music, we get people to gigs, thus creating a buzz.
Once you have your buzz and get signed your then releasing an album or two. 
This is where I am against. The guys in this position (and this is where the Lily Allen / Musicians Alliance stuff comes in) are the ones who have managed to get their job to be music. But all is not as it seems- as we have already discussed these guys essentially get a ‘loan’ from their record label, to be paid back in full, and with interest, before they can make money themselves, and in the end record another album. These guys are against filesharing and I absolutely agree with them.
The idea of a ‘rockstar’ being someone who drives Rolls-Royces into swimming pools and is constantly in hotel rooms with groupies is out dated and just plain wrong. These guys will be earning very simliar amounts to you or me right now (and I earn a pittance…) they are also the future of music. How many times recently have we heard people lamenting the fact that the naughties has had no classic music formed in it? Well in my opinion its not suprising – even Radiohead had to make 3 albums before they really started working on something different and clever, which, if they were starting now, is a luxury they would never have been afforded (not least because their first album didn’t sell – they would have been dropped). These guys need your support and your money to help them to continue down the path they want to make – and surely the goal for everyone on both sides of the argument is to be able to listen to quality, enjoyable, sometimes groundbreaking, always original (to an extent) music?
Then I get a little controversial- when a band hits a certain level of success I think it is in everyones best interest to go back to not being bothered about filesharing. This is because at this level they are (if doing their job properly) making a fortune from endorsements, being on soundtracks to films and games, playing live and merchandise from playing live. Labels get their money through other revenue streams and they are able to start experimenting with their sounds, seeing where they can lead their audience and generally becoming the ‘artists’ that they have always had the potential to have.
So whats this got to do with Mandelson? Well next time I will explore his plans of controlling what we do on the internet, and whether it really will make any difference to anyone at all.
Misspent Sunday afternoons in front of the radio…
I’ve been trying in my previous posts to give you an idea and a little bit of background in the whole world of being a musician, and quite what the costs are involved in getting involved in such an industry. This post hopefully will allow me to tie up any other thoughts, and then from here on in we can start looking at what is going on with the filesharing issue in particular and also the ins and outs of things we should know, understand and appreciate when deciding whether to go out and buy a cd or to jump on Pirate Bay or something similar to download the track.
Firstly this whole phenomenon is nothing new – I’m sure I’m not alone in sitting recording the tracks on radio 1 chart show when a bit younger in order to catch the top forty. Annoyingly of cause the dj would start talking just before the end of the song thus wrecking the end of the song, but you would then religiously listen to on your way to and from school. There was then of cause CD, minidisk and a whole host of other mediums to copy music from one place to another. This is even before making mixtapes for your latest beau and friends.
So what has changed this time? We often hear people say that copying music has happened forever, this is just the latest in the line of ways of exchanging tunes and that people shouldn’t get so upset about it. To a certain extent I would say this is true (remember although this is probably borderline anti-filesharing I still haven’t made a decision which way I am swinging on the issue…) but the differences are stark. For a start the ease of getting whatever your wanting to listen to. Whereas before you’d have to find a mate with the cd of the band your wanting to listen to, then convince them to tape it for you, then get the damn thing back again and then being able to listen nowadays you can jump on the internet, neatly dodge the porn and its there nicely in your player for your aural pleasure.
Depending on where you look on the internet, to the point that I wouldn’t even like to start quoting the numbers I have seen you can find a whole array of figures that have been spun by various industry ‘officials’ but we do know it is affecting sales – just taking a walk around HMV (or wanting to have a stroll round Virgin) would show that where there were once mountains of CDs are now games. Ironically of cause many of these games allow you to play along on virtual guitar with bands playing their hits, but where there once were CDs, there are now games.
But has it affected the industry as much as we are made to believe? Is there a way to keep recorded music at a high quality, when there is no money available to develop the ideas and sounds that can only be found and developed in a studio?
That my friends is for next time…
