It’s not you, it’s us
Google ‘The Great Unwanted’ and you only have to get to the second page before you can download all 13 tracks of our debut album for free. (Don’t all rush at once!) My gut reaction, on first seeing our beloved little self-released record on these file-sharing sites was one of shock and disgust. How dare they? Don’t they know how God-damned hard we worked? It’s a reasonable reaction from a struggling musician, for which I don’t apologise. Then, I was working part-time in a book shop desperately trying to make ends meet. But the issue of illegal file-sharing goes much deeper than right and wrong, it reaches far wider than artist and consumer, and it represents an entire generation of kids who have been brought up on it. To them, music has always been free, so why should they start paying for it now? It seems the horse has already bolted and the industry only has itself to blame.
Much of last week’s controversy surrounding Lily Allen and The Featured Artists Coalition has focused on the notion of greed. Of course, we’re all Ferrari-owning multi-millionaire pop stars on a mission to squeeze the last few pennies out of the impoverished music fan. It strikes me that we have a PR problem here. As I took the good old Northern Line home from Air Studios on Thursday night, I felt obliged to write about this on my own blog because, whilst in the context of a meeting of fellow musicians my opinion is just as valid as Lily’s, it’s not as newsworthy. Believe me, we need these big names, but if the press only focus on them, the FAC is misrepresented. Nobody wants to hear a member of Pink Floyd moaning about his wages, in much the same way as nobody trusts a fat politician, and I can fully appreciate why some are peeved.
The thing is, Ed from Radiohead wasn’t sat on his private beach counting his gold, he was at that meeting talking to the likes of Andrew and I because it’s not about the money; it’s not about record sales or relative success from one musician to another; it’s about the principle of the thing. In our case, we need all the money we can get in order to keep going. Each record we make pays for the next, and so we cling on to whatever income stream there is available. Why wouldn’t we? But there are some who believe musicians should simply give up their incomes from record sales as a matter of course. We already earn money from publishing, touring and selling T-shirts, so why be so greedy? Let’s make it all free. After all, it’s the record labels that will ultimately suffer because they take the greater cut (and who cares about hurting them anyway?) But in our case, we are the label, and just as not all recording artists drive Ferraris, not all record labels are evil, money-grabbing multi-national organisations. Labels struggle too.
The last thing we want to do is alienate the very people who enjoy our music. We rely so much on word of mouth because we don’t have major-label marketing budgets, and so we find ourselves in an incredibly difficult position. But others are profiting from illegal file-sharing – just look at the advertising revenue available on these sites. I don’t know how many illegal downloads we’ve had compared to official record sales. I guess I’ll never know, but being part of the FAC at least means we are opening up the debate further and bringing our ideas to parliament and to the major labels, who are the ones really pulling the strings. And guess what? They’re listening. For this, I’m grateful to Lily Allen because without her, we probably wouldn’t be having this debate at all. And for an emotional Lily to turn up at our meeting having given us such a public battering was one of the bravest things I think I’ve ever witnessed. She threw herself to the lions, proving that whichever side of the fence you’re on – not that it’s ever that black and white – this debate is raging because it’s something we all care so passionately about, and that can only be a good thing.
Ali x
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9 Comments to It’s not you, it’s us
by manc_ill_kid
On September 29, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Would you prefer I spent my hard-earned cash on your album or one of your gigs?
Please pick one or the other.
by Vincent
On September 30, 2009 at 1:53 pm
I can't come to your gigs unless you plan on coming to the Netherlands any time soon, but I've definitely planned on buying your album as soon as it's released. (I have to admit I downloaded Woah Billy! though – which sort of is the reason I'm buying the album.)
by Vincent
On September 30, 2009 at 1:54 pm
,
by Manish
On September 30, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Excellent. A very fair and reasoned post. On a slightly tangential note, I'm always amazed by the hypocrisy of many "indie" fans when they slam bands for taking what they consider to be the corporate dollar. Its like what David Sitek of TVOTR said when criticised by some fans for licensing "Staring at the Sun" for the end credits of Entourage: "Simmer down dude, you've got like $5,000 worth of stolen music on your iPod". It might surprise some people but musicians have to fork out for the mundane stuff like food and rent as well. And yet you guys still show great generosity to your fans. At the last Technicolour night you gave us all a free CD single. To hand out a £3 gift at a £7 event is very thoughtful. I can't remember the last time one of my mates gave me a CD for no reason! Keep sayng your piece and keep making gorgeous music x
by Dante Kleinberg
On October 12, 2009 at 11:19 pm
It drives me crazy that almost everyone I know pirates music, movies, software, video games, etc. I used to do it when I was in high school, but I'm not in high school anymore, you know? It's so ridiculous. Just because it's easy doesn't mean it's not stealing. I try to discourage it when I can but the fact is I don't want to get into heated arguments with all my friends and end up with no friends left. So I just mention cheap legal services like Amazon MP3 and Lala.com, etc., whenever I can and maybe one day they'll decide to use them.
by gabbazoo
On October 27, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Make sure to release the new one on vinyl. In fact I think it's the way to go. If I were starting a label (again) I would make release stuff in vinyl and download only, no CD version. Yes I will buy a CD if that's all there is tho.
PS any chance of a US release?…
by mogwai
On November 1, 2009 at 1:00 pm
All true what you said… on the other hand, in the media world where content being played on radio and TV is heavily pushed by publishing houses, I find the illegal downloads to be the last bastion for the indie bands – in fact, most of my last legal CD buys have been a consequence of hearing a band on some illegal indie samplers. Lucky Soul were also one such find for me – so its not all bad…
by Anonymous
On November 20, 2009 at 6:35 pm
I agree with your opinion. I have written a book so I can imagine how difficult is to create. You love your work and you´re proud of it. I´ll keep download your music legally I promise. There´s only one problem about availability of such songs as I Gots the Magic.
I wish you luck
by Davros
On November 22, 2009 at 2:16 am
Hi there, As I am a fan in Australia it makes it very hard to come to your shows. I found out about your album on a blog site and downloaded it for free purely out of interest. I have since spread the word to my friends and others. if you tour down here we will make it worth your while. Anyway, if you are self-releasing save time and offer the your album as a good quality download at a reasonable price – i don't know 4-6 euro. other sites do the same such as indiecater records or zunior and i bought fanfarlo's album for a $1 (extreme but best dollar i have spent in years). so perhaps the focus should be off the "physical" product such as a CD and more on high quality downloads at reasonalble prices. Keep up the good work and perhaps follow the Ed Droste (Grizzly Bear) philosophy that this file-sharing allows you to reach a much greater audience than before – have a look to see if your gigs are getting fuiller?