The internet is great for new musicians! No action against file-sharers!
Steve Wallis
Questions", the last big question of which was about the ethics of
downloading music for free.
It was disappointing that nobody pointed out the benefits of the
internet, particularly for new artists. Nowadays you don't need a
recording contract to become famous, because you can publish music
yourself on your own websites or on social networking sites (with
MySpace partcularly popular for music but I've also put music on
Facebook, Bebo and Multiply). You can allow your tracks to be listened
to for free, with or without the ability to download them, and make
money using legal downloads via such sites if you wish. What's more,
you can select some of your better tracks for free listening, giving
potential fans an idea of which your better albums are if they want to
buy a CD.
You don't need to rely as much on radio or TV stations to play your
songs in order to become famous or have a big hit. Radio 1 has a
playlist which restricts the tracks most DJs are allowed to play,
reflecting the musical tastes and political views of the bureaucrats
who construct it. Sandi Thom, who became famous through broadcasting
performances from her basement, would never have had a number one hit
with "I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (with flowers in my hair)" if she had
to rely on radio airplay, because the lyrics were so radical (although
she was wrong to say that she was born too late for revolution!).
Feargal Sharkey is the main spokesperson of (in his case former)
musicians opposed to illegal downloading. He came across in the
programme as a bitter and twisted middle aged man - a real
disappointment for someone who sang "a good heart is hard to find",
going to number 1 with that track (which I really liked). Someone who
truly has a good heart would empathise with his or her fans who
download such songs for free! I think Sharkey was good himself then,
but now has bad intentions, encouraging fellow musicians to be
selfish, caring most about the money they make through music. I talk
about the struggle between those with good and bad intentions in my
New Good Intentions Manifesto at http://www.socialiststeve.in/good-intentions-manifesto.html.
Sharkey complained about 80% of new musicians and songwriters hardly
making any money through music. What about the old days when record
companies and agents took most of the money? Now you can put music on
legal download sites very cheaply (SongCast for example put them on
the major sites for a small fee and you get all the money apart from
the cut taken by the sites). And shouldn't you record and play music
because you enjoy it and/or want to change the world rather than to
maximise profits?
There will always be people who pay for legal downloads and CDs,
whether or not the threat to disconnect the broadband services of
persistent downloaders goes ahead, as well as go to concerts, so those
who forecast the death of the music industry are being ridiculous. And
if most musicians and songwriters are poor, they will be less likely
to sell out anyway.
I have made recordings with the bands Galaxia and Red Day, and put
them for free downloading at http://www.galaxiamusic.org and
http://www.red-day.net - I have put "copyleft" notices on the MP3
files indicating that they may be freely distributed except for
profit. Copyleft was initially used for computer software; I worked at
a university developing my artficial intelligence/simulation language
SDML, rather than getting a much higher paid job in industry, and we
distributed it copyleft too, and I think it has been used by good and
bad conspirators modelling people and organisations in society in
opposition to or in support of the agenda of organisations like the
CIA!
--
Steve Wallis (Manchester, England)
Preferred email address: revolutionary...@yahoo.co.uk
Super-blog: http://www.twitter.com/socialiststeve
Other blogs: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/steve-wallis-socialist-blog,
http://blog.myspace.com/galaxiasteve
My socialist website: http://www.socialiststeve.me.uk [ Indian mirror
(containing same files but without publicly viewable statistics):
http://www.socialiststeve.in ]
My pages at Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/socialiststeve, MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/galaxiasteve and Bebo:
http://www.bebo.com/SteveW519
Founder, Ethical Capitalism Network: http://www.ethicalcapitalism.net
Founder, Foundation for Proportional Representation-based Socialism:
http://www.PRsocialism.org
Founder, Revolutionary Platform Network: http://www.revolutionaryplatform.net
My revolutionary socialist band, Galaxia: http://www.galaxiamusic.net,
http://www.myspace.com/galaxiamusic,
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Galaxia-a-revolutionary-socialist-band/84310120180,
http://www.bebo.com/galaxiamusic
My socialist band, Red Day: http://www.red-day.net, http://www.myspace.com/reddayband,
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Day/27468311341
Author, "Revolution Destroyed? Have I ensured that a world socialist
revolution will never happen?": http://www.revolutiondestroyed.net