Lily Allen On Piracy - It's Not Alright
Recently Lily Allen made a splash in the online media when she started a blog where she posted a letter regarding music piracy and how it affected smaller artists, she then went on to post replies she got from other artists.
The letter raised some interesting points from the perspective of the artists which is a new perspective because normally you only hear from the ISPs and record labels. The main point the letter makes is that piracy is not alright (probably why the blog got its name) and it only damages the music industry making it hard for smaller artists to make it big.
So i decided to express my opinions as piracy is something i often agree with but think i might change that stance after hearing what Lily Allen has said regarding piracy.
Why I Agree With Piracy, Sometimes
Piracy is not a good thing for anyone but sometimes it is the only option for people with not very much money, software piracy has to be the biggest piracy genre and the reason for this is simply over priced software. If companies like Adobe and Microsoft who make millions/billions of profit every year simply lowered the price of their software to make it more accessible to poorer people then software piracy would not be as rife in the modern age. Adobe Photoshop costs over £600 which is price well out of reach of most people wanting to learn design, this is probably why people pirate it.
Music piracy is the next biggest pirated media and i think the majority of people pirate music simply because they want to try the music, people find it hard to simply go and buy something with no idea of what it is like, this has obviously all changed now with legal streaming websites, iTunes and YouTube all offering a preview of the song. I have always stood by the same principle of "If I Like It, I Will Pay For It" which is why i tend to source music for free before i give any money away, why should i pay for something i don't like.
Lily Allen's Letter
Below is the letter that Lily Allen published on her blog "It's Not Alright"
The debate on digital music piracy is reaching a critical point as Peter Mandelson and the government move to legislation that will tackle unlawful file sharing. The industry’s had a say, the ISPs have had a say and some artists – through the Featured Artists Coalition have had a say. But I don’t agree with them. Do you?
I feel really strongly about file sharing. I see it having a damaging effect on British music – especially on emerging artists. Overall the internet’s had a great effect on music and been crucial in helping people like me break through. But file sharing is different to legal streaming or making some music available as promotion. File sharing eats away at opportunity for new artists: by cutting off income at the most crucial, cash-strapped point in their careers and by limiting A&R’s ability to sign new acts outside of the mainstream.
The ISPs have got their message out there: they don’t want to be the internet police. Fine. The industry has got its message out there: they’re losing money and they want it back. No surprises there.
And now some artists have got their message out there: that file sharing is fine when you’re a successful artist with sell out tours and a back catalogue ready to be sold to a new audience. That might be fine for them, but it’s not fine for the acts that haven’t made it big yet.
What I’d like is for artists that don’t think file sharing is fine to get their message out there too. I want to make it clear that file sharing is not alright. And I want the industry and the artists that have made it, to look at how we can help those artists that are still struggling to break through in the file sharing age.
So obviously I’m writing you because I’d really like your help. You don’t have to like my music –you don’t even have to like me. But if you think file sharing’s not alright and reckon we should be doing more to ensure emerging artists aren’t cut off, then I’d love a hand.
I want to get everyone together – the artists, record companies, ISPs and government –to properly talk about this. So we can stop bickering and try and come to a solution. We can even see if we can come up with some new ideas too.
I want us to talk about how we support emerging artists. If we support emerging artists, we can ask our fans to support them too. And if we’re not going after piracy, we need to talk about how we are going to support new talent.
The majority of British artists are against file sharing, because it will harm British music. We can talk about all the legal means of accessing music out there and even come up with new ways to access music, but ultimately we need to establish that we think file sharing is wrong.
If you agree with what I’m saying and want to be involved with voicing our opinion, then get in touch.
Lily
RE: Lily Allen's Letter
I have many different opinions on each different block in this letter, so the best way for me to correctly voice that opinion is to comment on each blog.
The debate on digital music piracy is reaching a critical point as Peter Mandelson and the government move to legislation that will tackle unlawful file sharing. The industry’s had a say, the ISPs have had a say and some artists – through the Featured Artists Coalition have had a say. But I don’t agree with them. Do you?
Yes, and No, and Maybe. Maybe?
I feel really strongly about file sharing. I see it having a damaging effect on British music – especially on emerging artists. Overall the internet’s had a great effect on music and been crucial in helping people like me break through. But file sharing is different to legal streaming or making some music available as promotion. File sharing eats away at opportunity for new artists: by cutting off income at the most crucial, cash-strapped point in their careers and by limiting A&R’s ability to sign new acts outside of the mainstream.
First of all i think it is unfair to say that legal streaming websites are good for promotion when revenue is generated from legal streaming and the artists do see some cut of this revenue, legal streaming is a source of money for the artist and label just as digital purchasing is.
Secondly i do not feel that file sharing eats away at opportunities for new artists, file sharing has clearly got some very positive aspects and i feel that Lily Allen is very aware of this, she was discovered and signed because of MySpace music, a place to distribute your own music for free to people who like it, she would never make a penny from MySpace but instead it allowed her to establish fans and let people who were interested listen to the music for free. If giving away music to get discovered is right, why is sharing music between fans considered wrong, surly this just promotes your music more and as i mentioned "If people like it, they will pay for it"
The ISPs have got their message out there: they don’t want to be the internet police. Fine. The industry has got its message out there: they’re losing money and they want it back. No surprises there.
And now some artists have got their message out there: that file sharing is fine when you’re a successful artist with sell out tours and a back catalogue ready to be sold to a new audience. That might be fine for them, but it’s not fine for the acts that haven’t made it big yet.
ISP don't want to police the internet because they know they cannot and it is not in their interest to do so, they can't earn money from it so why do it.
The music industry is built on greed, money and more greed, they want every penny they can get and this is why people pirate.
I don't agree that it is only the big successful artists that can successfully give away their music, it is worth bring up Girl Talk, an artist that release their album on the internet under the "Pay What You Want" scheme, this was a successful means of distribution because it was free for the artist to do, more people would listen to the album and if listeners liked the music they would donate to the artists for future plans. If more music labels left behind the greed for just one second and looked at new distribution methods more artists could become huge hits. It seems to me like music labels have the whole world in front of them (the internet) and they are scared to do anything with it.
I want to get everyone together – the artists, record companies, ISPs and government –to properly talk about this. So we can stop bickering and try and come to a solution. We can even see if we can come up with some new ideas too.
You do this and you will still have the same problems as before, the ISPs don't want to police the internet because they can gain nothing from it, the record companies just want money, money and more money and the artists just want to make music for the fans.
If you really want good ideas you get the ISPs, government, artists and record companies together along with some smart people who know how the internet works and how they can use the internet to sell records and promote new artists. You need someone without who isn't bias.
You have the entire world at your finger tips and it is quite easy for big artists to promote smaller artists on social networks like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace and record companies to allow free distribution of "some" tracks from that artists so that they can gain fans. Miike Snow, Little Boots and Friendly Fires are artists i love and were all artists that gave away a free track from their album on iTunes, and because i loved the music i purchased the album.
Why do you think Asda let you try picnic sausages for free? because they know if you like the sausages you will buy a whole box of them. This is the same principle that worked for Miike Snow, Little Boots and Friendly Fires.
The majority of British artists are against file sharing, because it will harm British music. We can talk about all the legal means of accessing music out there and even come up with new ways to access music, but ultimately we need to establish that we think file sharing is wrong.
I agree with this, i think artists do need to find better legal means of distributing their music to fans, the best way to do this would be to push legal streaming websites, a technology growing at a very rapid rate. I have already seen this happening with we7 who often let you listen to the entire album before it's release.
Personally i have moved away from piracy as a means to "try out" music and now try my music on we7 or Spotify and i think if more people were aware of this option piracy wouldn't be an issue for big or small artists.
If you agree with what I’m saying and want to be involved with voicing our opinion, then get in touch.
Way ahead of you Miss Allen.
What Needs To Be Done
Artists and Record Labels need to embrace the Internet more by letting people sample music for free like Friendly Fires, Little Boots and Miike Snow, they also need to support legal streaming websites more, maybe offer exclusive tracks to tempt people away from piracy.
Secondly if the bigger artists just gave a little more help in promoting the little guys then the good music would easily find a way through and would establish fans who would pay for the music.
Adopt new distribution methods like Girl Talk did with their album, if smaller artists did this then they would get more listeners and would increase revenue so that they could continue making music people love. The bigger artists don't need to do this, but they still need to take note of how people use the internet and adopt their distribution methods to fit the current trends.
Conclusion
I don't think piracy will ever go away but i hope that artists, record companies, ISPs and some third party can sit down, talk about piracy and conceive a better way of distributing new music and establishing fans for small artists, if they do this correctly they can decrease the number of people pirating music.
I know a lot of people will disagree with my opinions and if you have an opinion of your own then please leave it in the comments, you might point something out to me that i missed before.
Don't Steal
Lastly i think it is worth mentioning that in this day and age (The Killers album title, genius) you don't need to pirate because there are legal streaming websites that let you listen to the full song and albums for free and this is paid for by advertising. Streaming means you never own the song and you cannot put on your iPod/MP3 Player but it does mean you can try the song before you buy it, both we7 and Spotify let you buy songs, or you could just download from iTunes.
It is illegal and if you get caught pirating music then you can be fined, heavily.
Related Links
Below are links to some of the bands or websites i have mentioned in this article, after all the whole purpose is about supporting artists.
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