Do you
download music illegally? Congratulations, you are killing the UK pop industry
- Mail Online - Paul Connolly on Music and Movies
28.
august 2012
09:10
25 March 2010 1:22 PM
Do you download music illegally? Congratulations, you are killing the UK
pop industry
Listen, most
of us have done it at least once.
In the early
days of the internet I occasionally tracked down obscure songs from acts of my
youth that I couldn’t find anywhere else on dodgy peer-to-peer services such as
Limewire.
I didn’t think
I was doing anything wrong – after all, I’d already bought the songs on 7” inch
singles back in the 1980s so it wasn’t like I hadn’t paid for them already.
That was my
reasoning anyway, flawed as it was.
Then, as I
spent more time with bands, I started to realise the detrimental effect it was
having on their livelihood. “People think it’s no big deal but it is,
essentially, stealing,” was the general feeling among bands. “If we don’t sell
enough albums, the label will not renew our contract and the band splits up.”
But many
people still think nothing of downloading music illegally. Indeed some think
it’s their right.
Why? Would
they be happy working for nothing? No, of course not, but they expect their
favourite bands to not be paid for their work.
Last year Lily
Allen (above) popped her head above the parapet and said, ‘Illegal file-sharing
damages music because it harms new artists.
'When you
start in a music career, you need money to establish and promote yourself and
pay for your material to be recorded.
'This money
comes from music sales, because when you're a new artist you can't make enough
from gigs or selling T-shirts. If you can't sell your music, you can't go on.
It's that simple.’
She was
absolutely slaughtered for her stance by those most cowardly of individuals,
anonymous internet warriors. ‘All art should be free,’ claimed one bonehead.
‘You’re rich, so stop moaning,’ piped up another rational thought vacuum, while
one music critic, usually a sensible chap, called Allen "a pampered lovey
in chav's clothing."
And these were
the less vicious responses by the brain donors.
Allen is, of
course right, as emphasised by a recent report which suggests that the British
music business is likely to lose nearly 10,000 jobs over the next 5 years as a
result of piracy.
That’s nearly
10% of those currently employed in an industry which currently annually exports
£1.3bn of music.
The
contraction of the industry will mean fewer labels signing fewer new bands. As
music business boss Geoff Taylor says, ‘We are approaching a tipping point
where investment in our talent will dry up due to mass illegal downloading.’
And what will
the music thieves have left to steal then?
