Musicians Oppose Anti-Piracy Measures In the UK

BluePeppers writes "The Guardian has a story, primarily about a deal that allows YouTube to broadcast music videos again, but also covering a coalition of artist unions that are opposing new legislation in the UK that would punish file sharers more severely. From the article: 'A coalition of bodies representing a range of stars including Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John, and Damon Albarn attacks the proposals as expensive, illogical and "extraordinarily negative." The Featured Artists Coalition, the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, and the Music Producers Guild have joined forces to oppose the proposals to reintroduce the threat of disconnection for persistent file sharers, which was ruled out in the government's Digital Britain report in June.""

Comments

Re:Stick and Carrot

[Opportunist]

Oh, there's been an incentive to buy music instead of just downloading it. First, you got a good looking CD, with cover, maybe an artbook, lyrics and some other nifty things. People like putting a printed CD into the player and know that it's the "real stuff" instead of slipping a bland, white (or bland shiny) CD in, knowing that it's just one of many thousands they have. There's also that it is/used to be hassle free. Take the CD out of the case, place it in the player, play. No downloading, checking whether the song is ok or whether it's the right one altogether, burn it, check that burning worked out and the cheap CDR didn't crap out on you halfway... And finally the alleged better CD quality, though my dumb ears can't hear any difference anyway.

What's the incentive today when you get basically the same MP3s? Or CDs that may or may not contain crap that make them unusable in the player of your choice? Not to mention that artbooks or other goodies virtually vanished, replaced by a single sheet of paper so you at least know what CD you actually have in your hands. Which contains maybe 30 minutes of music, if that. All that and less for only 15 bucks.

A musicians perspective

[Max Romantschuk]

I've made quite a few tracks for fun... And lately, I've been looking at the possibility to get them on on iTunes, Spotify, etc.

Here comes the great part: I don't need a label on anything these days. There are already several services that will publish independent music direct to major stores and streaming services without going through a bunch of extra layers.

So if I ever decide to publish my stuff I can just ignore the (Finnish equivalent of the) RIAA. I'd rather miss out on any money I could get that route than help rob everyone of any more rights.

Gotta love progress.