Piracy on the High Cyber Seas

I wrote this article some time ago and then completely forgot about it, so some if it is less current than it might have been. However, I feel the issues it raises continue to be of relevance so I thought I would share.

With the issue being in continual debate over recent months and various pop-star egos publically throwing their toys out of the pram, I feel compelled to open the can of worms that is file-sharing and piracy. Whilst the world continues to heat up, so does the debate on whether we should be able to download music and movies for free. As our noetic sensibilities continue to react and evolve, it seems the mainstream attitude towards this failing industry model do not. The old vanguard of music industry spin doctors and label bosses seem desperately intent on clutching onto the remains of an outdated and languishing archetype, despite the fact that it slips away from them toward their perceived shadow realm: a new democratic paradigm of production and reception. Many artists in the industry cling to that same image of the past. So where now for the music industry?

British pseudo-cynical pop-starlet Lily Allen has recently hit out at Ed O’Brien (otherwise known as Radiohead guitarist) and Nick Mason (otherwise known as the drummer for Pink Floyd) for their support of forms of file-sharing. Both are members of the Featured Artist’s Coalition (FAC) which was set-up to try and attach artists within musical projects more closely to their creations, having previously been dictated to by the owners of their music i.e. the labels they were signed to. In association with the FAC both O’Brien and Mason have become part of a new campaign to evolve the industry’s attitude to music downloads and have spoken out about a need for change in the production-reception paradigm. They, along with others involved in the campaign, have spoken out about government plans to ‘throttle’ bandwidth of pirates claiming this will alienate their fan base and force piracy further underground. Allen however, finds this all a little too much. In a rant on her MySpace blog she lashed out at what she perceives to be musical fat-cats saying, “I think music piracy is having a dangerous effect on British music, but some really rich and successful artists like Nick Mason from Pink Floyd and Ed O'Brien from Radiohead don't seem to think so. Last week in an article in the Times these guys from huge bands said file sharing music is fine. It probably is fine for them. They do sell-out arena tours and have the biggest Ferrari collections in the world. For new talent though, file sharing is a disaster as it's making it harder and harder for new acts to emerge.” Whereas O’Brien’s view on the matter went, "My generation grew up with the point of view that you pay for your music. Every generation has a different method. File sharing is like a sampler, like taping your mate's music. You go, 'I like that, I'll go and buy the album'. Or, 'you know what, I'll go and see them live'. What's going on is a huge paradigm shift." Well, at least there is a shred of progressive thinking there.

In this article, I am not really concerned with this feud. I am also not really concerned with the exact methods that are going to be employed by the likes of Radiohead, Pink Floyd or even Blur and Billy Bragg (others mentioned in The Times article - http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/... - that sparked the debate). But they do provide a jumping off point for discussing this paradigm shift. It seems to me to demonstrate the larger change occurring in our wider society and also has all the hallmarks of a forced redress of fundamentals in a given cultural form; the divide of individuals who seek to change and evolve and those that feel upset at having their accustomed modes of existence thrown into disarray. But what is really being cast into doubt here? A crucial point within this seems to be the standard perception of success and failure, the transformation of which seems to stretch the imagination of artists like Lily Allen. If music is as spiritually, socially and politically important as we claim it is at its core, and hope for it to become again (diluted as it is by business interests), then surely we need to consider the progressive models put forth by such ideas as the gift economy; reciprocation and empathy, rather than the old dialectical transition of money that represents hierarchy, competition and a whole set of ideals that we would not associate with the heart of music. Perhaps core ideals of sustainability can be applied to musicians and the record industry. I am reminded of a Post Modern Times short film I watched recently entitled ‘Another Green World.’ In it Kevin Danaher, co-founder of green group Global Exchange, depicted a model of enterprise that encompassed existing and tested methods with a renewed attitude at its heart regarding people and the environment, enabling an ethical, sustainable and above all practical solution to the problems faced by our current infrastructure. A key sentiment stuck out for me – that of synergising a renewed attitude with a revised economic structure. Can the music industry take an example from sustainability practices? Can it become ‘local’ and ‘green’ in character, taking on the notion of people over profits? I certainly think so. However, it will take a radical change of approach within the mainstream sector of this industry (as I daresay this is the approach taken by progressives already, certainly in the more underground of musical scenes; many of whom far less characterise their success through the financial rewards accrued but instead reap material benefit through the transformative power of their art). Perhaps it is time for artists expecting the big Ferrari collections to expect something else.

Ed O’Brien identified the need to reach ones audience in different ways these days, deeming it more important that the music was out there than being paid for. After all, if you reach a wide audience many of them may pay to come to your shows and become part of the experience that is music. I would argue that this is an act of reciprocation in the simplest sense. But even more, artists might feel inclined to offer something of a different substance in their music, other than the commodified mediation that is a disc of plastic containing a dozen or so neat little packaged three or four minute escapist ‘nuggets’.