Say what you will about Lily Allen’s mouth, but it looks as though Lily has actually said something quite intelligent.
The media loves to jump all over Allen’s Myspace blogging – which clearly has affected the frequency of both her blogging and tweeting – and Allen finally seems to be using that to her advantage, and promoting something she believes in.
Lily Allen is against file sharing and the piracy of music.
It’s easy to brush this off as another pop star just wanted as much money as they can, and that the musicians who aren’t cool with online piracy just don’t *get* the internet.
But Lily actually isn’t being greedy, obviously does quite understand internet culture, and has made a number of very fair and valid points against file sharing.
While Ed O’Brien of Radiohead thinks that “every generation has a different method” of collecting music and that “file sharing is like a sampler, like taping your mate’s music” and that those crazy kids who download an entire album illegally online are going to go actually purchase the album if they like it – Lily Allen disagrees.
She points out while this may be all well and good for the likes of Radiohead and Pink Flloyd and other members of the Featured Artists Coalition, the new artists are the ones who are suffering from piracy.
How are new artists supposed to make any money if people are simply stealing their tracks and debut albums online?
“You don't start out in music with the Ferraris. Instead you get a huge debt from your record company, which you spend years working your arse off to repay. When you manage to get a contract, all those pretty videos and posters advertising your album have to be paid for and as the artist, you have to pay for them. “
And if you don’t think that this is a problem, Allen argues that if online piracy of music is allowed to continue, that we’ll only have “Simon Cowell Puppets” to listen to, as all the other true and original artists will never be able to flourish, grow, and earn a living from making music.
As much as I love the idea of free music, free films and having freedom online – I agree with Lily.
What are the new artists supposed to do? These days, everyone thinks they’re a bloody pop star or DJ. Gain a couple thousand friends on Myspace, and voila! You’re *famous*.
And how many of those “pop stars” do we have dominating the charts today? How good is the music on the radio at the moment? Take a look at the UK Top 40.
It’s crap, isn’t it? Whether or not you believe that Lily Allen is crap, can you really argue with her points?
For the most part – with the exceptions of the Jonas Brothers and any other crappy boy band that the girls go crazy for – the sales speak for themselves. You are given awards and recognition for the amount of albums you sell. And if people aren’t buying albums, and they’re simply downloading bullshit online – how can decipher between quality music and the crap?
Don’t you think that your favorite music stars should get paid for what they do?
Doesn’t Britain pride itself in its music and its emerging musical talent?
So why not make it easier and for legitimate artists to have a fighting chance?
Lily Allen points out that it’s “not like there aren't alternatives to illegal downloads” and that you can listen to music for free on Spotify and Myspace “without having to rip someone off.”
In order to keep the quality of music high, we surely should keep the availability of illegal music downloads online low.
Artists should get paid for their work. If more established artists want to give away their music for free, and have faith that they can still make money with their music through other avenues, such as a sold out arena tour, then that’s great.
But we need our new artists to have options, too. They deserve that much.
I’m tired of listening to shit on the radio.