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Which Artists Support Music Swapping?
jtauber asks: "With RIAA's new campaign to 'educate' people that unauthorized downloads of music are illegal and with the range of artists who are endorsing the campaign, I thought it would be interesting to ask the question: which well-known artists (if any) go against the RIAA and are _in favour_ of music swapping? Certainly many unsigned bands like my own encourage it, but what about those signed with major record labels?" We did a question along a similar veign not too long ago, except its focus was non-RIAA Record Labels. What artists are you aware of (popular or not) who have come out in favor of music-swapping?
Rage Against the Machine would like to sincerely apologise to all of our fans who were kicked off of Napster for downloading 'Renegades'. The move to take action against Rage fans was taken completely unilaterally by our new management. In their zeal to keep the record from getting out before the release date, they did not consult the band before instructing Sony Music Corp. to institute the Napster ban. As soon as I was made aware of this horrible mistake on their part, I immediately phoned our management and the record company to see what we could do to get our Napster-using fans reinstated as soon as possible. I'm told that the easiest way to get back on Napster as quickly as possible is to download one of many files floating around on the Internet to get around the ban.
BONO: "My feeling," he adds, "is that it is cool for people to share our music -- as long as no one is making money from the process. We tell people who come to our concerts that they can tape the shows if they want. I think it is cool that people are so passionate about our music"
THE EDGE: The terror of online song-trading and bootlegging that has occurred in the wake of Napster is not something the members of U2 are losing any sleep over. "In fact, as long as fans aren't being exploited and bootleggers aren't raking in huge money from the practice, it's a part of the music business they've come to accept."
...Janis Ian?
She has at least 2 articles on her website, http://www.janisian.com, that are quite anti-RIAA.
Only in slashdot are posts of solidarity modded at -1 Redundant, while posts of antagonism are modded as -1 Flamebait.
smaller local type band, with great potential. here
Radiohead have commented about this before, saying that they're ok with live concerts being redistributed at will, but apparently their publishers aren't quite as keen as they've shut down several sites because of it.
Prince. He released a single on Napster. He appears to take the U2 stance: He doesn't like bootleggers who rake in cash from his work. But he appears to appreciate anything that shakes up a broken system... as explained in: A Nation of Thieves (As seen in a previous Slashback)
say what you will about his music, but yeah, he definitely understands the importance of cherishing his audience. in fact, i have (amusingly enough) an mp3 of him speaking on the radio in the early 70's talking about how he really digs that his fans have been bootlegging his stuff and people are listening to his stuff more. more recently, i have another interview of him where he was talking about how he really doesn't see the harm in trading music files of his stuff...
Large print giveth, and the small print taketh away
In another interview I read, she said she composed the album with the idea in her mind of her fans sharing the album through the web, and wrote much of the lyrics as a kind of "whispered secret" for listeners to enjoy. I think she's one of the few artists who realizes that without her fans, she wouldn't be where she is today.
Chuck D. has also seemed to be fairly clueful about the web, although I'm not sure how he feels about P2P apps.
Free music from Jack Merlot.