Last year, Radiohead expressed their growing discomfort with record labels that abuse copyrights for their own benefit, while harassing their fans. In a recent interview, Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien said that he doesn’t believe piracy is killing the music industry, but that the industry will kill itself if it doesn’t adapt to the digital age.
In an attempt to take a stand against the labels, several well known artists including Radiohead formed the Featured Artists Coalition last year, a lobby group that aims to end the extortion-like practices of record labels and allow artists to gain more control over their own work.
Radiohead and others are unhappy with the fact that the labels, represented by lobby groups such as the RIAA and IFPI, are pushing for anti-piracy legislation without consulting the artists they claim to represent. Radiohead, who used BitTorrent to leakone of their songs, went as far as being willing to show up as a witness against the RIAA in court.
In a new MIDEM interview, Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien stands up for file-sharers once again, stating that piracy is not killing the music industry in his view.
Presumably Ed thinks that Radiohead would be able to fill arenas and tour with the kind of production they carry around based purely on their live reputation? The truckloads of physical sales that Radiohead have enjoyed has built up their live reputation to the point that they have an in built audience. They don’t need to sell albums anymore, they make a fortune simply touring. But as Popjustice said yesterday on their blog it’s all well and good for dinosaurs like U2 and the like to defend file sharing. But with no one paying for music, “Perhaps in Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien’s world all music should be free and things like videos should be paid for with magic beans and painted twigs.”
All of the stuff we enjoy about Radiohead – from beautifully recorded and produced music, to cutting edge visuals, cost money. Who should pay for that?
Good to see. The music industry as it stands is hellbent on destroying itself, which is a good thing – it\’s ceased to be about music, which is now just the \”content\” part of the commerce.
So I think the industry is slowly (but increasingly rapidly) dying.
Inevitably musicians will have to find another system / model for making a living – it won\’t be focused about selling records, but income will be generated for musicians in other ways. File sharing is here to stay.
I think it\’s a fault this widespread assumption that music \”should\” be free, that people have a God given right to it. People do work hard producing it – the baker doesn\’t give away his bread. But the truth is that free albums / downloads are most likely the future, and income will have to be generated for artists in other ways.
It would\’ nt be a huge technological feat to add \”tip\” feature to mp3s or some other format. I\’m always happy to throw loose change to a worthy busker. Micropayments direct to the artists when I get a buzz from a track (and have some cash in my e-pocket) would be the digital equivalent.
btw. these King Crimson Lyrics spring to mind.
\”ignorance has alway been something i excel in followed by naivete and pride
doesn\’t take a scientist to see howany clever predator could have a piece of me
standing in the sun, idiot savant, something like a monument
when i look back on the past it\’s a wonder i\’m not yet extinct
all the mistakes and bad judgements i made nearly pushed me to the brink
it doesn\’t pay to be too nice it\’s the one thing i have learned
i made my fossil bed now i toss and turn
i\’m a dinosaur, somebody is digging my bones.\”
Well done, Radiohead!
The same problem exists in the movie and (actually *less* so) the video games industries.
For video games online distribution such as Steam and the various console stores along with network-enabled gameplay (please, only as long as it really adds to the gameplay value) seem to be on the right track, especially when prices are reduced (personally I’ve spent a *lot* of money on Steam 75% off offers).
The music and film industries should devise ways to tap into such ways of getting revenues. I think the iTunes store along with websites such as Last.fm have the ball here.
As a proficient ‘torrenter’, I would have to agree. It’s more a case of not having the time nor money to go out and buy overpriced albums (as a student in Sixth Form). If I didn’t download, I know I still wouldn’t buy them – more morally acceptable services such as Spotify would prove adequate enough to suit my music needs, but personally I have no qualms with downloading content for free.
Instead, I save up money to pay for gigs. I’ve seen most of the bands in my iTunes collection, and the ones that I haven’t are generally quite old or simply not around anymore. Even managed to catch The Rolling Stones a couple of years ago. I simply can’t agree with the proposed measures for anti-piracy in this case. I understand what it stands for, but must say that it’s only through fault of greedy record companies that it has come to this.
wow, good old Ed! lucky for him he’s already a multi-millionaire, eh.
*goes out and buys a radiohead cd*.. :p the irony
To hear music industry lobbyists bleating on about piracy killing music is rather like listening to a vampire moaning about his victim’s anaemia. For one thing, you’d have thought piracy began with the internet. Here’s a shock: it didn’t. I used to buy bootleg tapes (often created by the artists themselves) back in the 80s, and I taped stuff from the radio too. The music didn’t die; it thrived on the extra distribution. Fans already part with plenty of cash for gigs, T-shirts, etc, and will continue to buy when they can afford it. The problem for the fatcats (Cowell et al) is that now the unit cost of production (of an mp3 file, say) is so low that profit margins will have to come down. Boo hoo. Fewer songs about shagging groupies in 5-star hotels? I doubt it.