The means are here, AND people even listen to the music!) I think the music scene should be about the music itself and not about who can afford to do it or who has a sponsor. (if you like Amy Whinehouse, Mark Ronson, Lilly Allen, then you might not have a problem with that. that’s wrong in my opinion because we don’t get the best possible music this way. Reality is that young musicians can only survive if they come from a upper middle class or rich background these days. (“bands should sell merch”, “you can reach millions of potential fans”, “myspace is great”)Ĭensorship or control by governments or corporations is NOT the solution. I wrote an article about this issue two years ago: httpss://this is a very complex issue and I hate when people give these easy answers. Lucy obviously doesn’t know the reality of indie musicians and labels these days. It’s actually a very exciting time to be alive if you can get your head around the fact that the old order is redundant.
The Pirate Party stand for freedom of information and sharing art digitally is part of that they’re part of the same wave as Wikileaks, where new technology is changing the way we have to think about morality and freedom and art and money and politics.
No-one is saying that musicians should have to work for free or deserve to be fleeced, but there do need to be new strategies to take account of new circumstances. But this is a transitional time, a time to reassess how things work and how music can be funded. All attempts to stop copying and sharing are doomed to failure, it’s just big business trying to claw back some power. People who want to make music will still do so if they love it, but now getting it out there is much easier that should be celebrated. You can’t turn the clock back: the fact exists that once something is digitised it can be shared. Look at the way Jane Siberry or Kristin Hersh or Amanda Palmer fund their lives and their music: it’s brilliant and it works.
Steve Albini’s rant on the music industry isn’t obsolete yet: httpss://Projects like Bandcamp are fantastic: there are so many ways in which fans can get their money directly to musicians without going through middlemen.
That’s where the disrespect for musicians lies, not with the people who listen and share and discuss and generate enthusiasm. Livelihoods are draining away same as they ever were, because of the greed of the big record companies.