Tuesday, 22 September 2009

Lily leads artists in piracy fightback

Lily wins support from Barlow as artists rally against music piracy
Singer Lily Allen has won support from the likes of Gary Barlow and James Blunt as artists rally against the effect of music piracy.

A post from the Smile star on her MySpace page earned a response from Muse frontman Matt Bellamy and Allen has since started a blog to publish messages from fellow musicians, with chart-topper Taio Cruz one of the most recent to iterate his thoughts on the matter.

The artists' complaints come after a representative group, the Featured Artists' Coalition (FAC), spoke out against plans to punish internet users who persistently download music illegally.

Allen later wrote that the rise of music piracy was 'having a damaging effect on British music'.

She claimed it 'eats away at opportunity for new artists' and added: 'The majority of British artists are against file-sharing, because it will harm British music.'

She went on: 'We can talk about all the legal means of accessing music out there and even come up with new ways to access music, but ultimately we need to establish that we think file-sharing is wrong.'

Take That's Barlow replied to Allen's blog, saying it was a 'fantastic' read and that he agreed with 'every single sentence' while Blunt described Allen as musicians' 'leader' in the fight against illegal file-sharing.

'I want to put my hand up in support of Lily Allen,' he wrote in a letter to the Times.

'She's asking British musicians to galvanise over a serious crime: the death of a Great British industry - our music business.

'The world over, people are stealing music in its millions in the form of illegal file-sharing.'

'It's easy to do, and has become accepted by many, but we need people to know that it is destroying people's livelihoods and suffocating emerging new British artists,' he explained.

Taio Cruz, who hit the number one spot with Break Your Heart on Sunday, explained file-sharing had almost led to him losing his record contract, due to his debut album being leaked online before release.

'Both my label and myself were left in a very difficult position,' he said in a video post on the It's Not Alright blog started by Allen.

'I could have been dropped from my record deal because so much was spent and so much of my album was leaked and not paid for. But luckily my label had great belief in me. File-sharing has had a very, very negative effect on my career, as it has on many others.'

He added: 'I think it's very positive to see that other artists, along with the government, are coming together to defend the right to protect our art.'

A statement posted on the FAC's website on Monday stressed the organisation is opposed to illegal music downloading, despite reports to the contrary.

'Statements made in opposition to this idea [that connections should be severed] by members of the Featured Artists Coalition have been taken to imply that we condone illicit file-sharing,' it read. 'This is not the case and never has been.

'We wish to make it clear to all parties that we believe the creative work of artists should be paid for by those who enjoy it and that whenever our music is used, royalties should be paid.'

It continued: 'The focus of our objection is the proposed treatment of ordinary music fans who download a few tracks so as to check out our material before they buy. For those of us who don't get played on the radio or mentioned in the music media – artists established and emerging – peer-to-peer recommendation is an important form of promotion.'

Lily Allen's blog can be found at http://idontwanttochangetheworld.blogspot.com.ADNFCR-708-ID-19370827-ADNFCR

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