Actually, it's less 1-0 and more of a cricket score – the kind of merciless pasting only seen in schoolboy football nowadays. But anyway.
The background: Lily Allen spoke out against music piracy, then set up a blog to vent her own views and those of fellow artists. Then she got accused of plagiarism, cutting and posting a story from Techdirt without proper attribution. Then she got accused of hypocrisy, having stuck a couple of MP3 mixtapes of other people's tunes on her site early in her career. Then she got hundreds of abusive comments, and now she's shut the blog down.
That's the summary. And it's actually made me angry. Proper ear-steaming anger. Anger at the mob mentality that's squashed a site that could have fostered a constructive debate around this whole thorny issue of file-sharing.
I did have a rant about it on Music Ally's blog, but to avoid clogging that up – and because these are my personal views – I've come back to it here.
A couple of things to say first, though:
1. I don't agree with a lot of Lily Allen's views on piracy. Starting with the idea that file-sharing “is not alright” (it can be, if artists are using it to help them get paid in other ways – and a growing number, big and small, are doing just that).
I also disagree with the principle of preventing it by telling fans it's wrong (what's really needed is better legal ways for those fans to discover, listen to and own music – one of the few things that the government, the music industry and the ISPs have managed to agree on).
And finally I disagree with her portrayal of the Featured Artists Coalition as rich pop stars who don't care about struggling artists (I genuinely think FAC is more about rich pop stars speaking out and getting media coverage on behalf of all artists, not just their own bank balances).
2. The mixtape thing wasn't good at all. Promoting yourself with a mixtape including other people's music doesn't sit well with campaigning against fans downloading albums for free.
I think MP3 mixtapes are a great way for new artists to get their name out – Little Boots has done a couple of good ones that gave a 30-minute primer on her influences – but if they're unlicensed, they're just as much a case of file-sharing as someone downloading albums from BitTorrent. Artists and songwriters aren't getting paid in either case.
Having said that... the ferocious Lily-baiting this week has been shameful. “Shut up, love. You're a hypocrite, you don't understand copyright laws or the internet. Now fuck off.”
Many commenters on Lily's blog and elsewhere have been happy to back this up with their opinions on her looks and musical talent, naturally.
There's been a real mob mentality – an ugly phenomenon that's been highlighted in other areas by TechCrunch. It wasn't enough to disagree with what Allen and her fellow artists were saying – she had to be drummed out of the debate.
The constructive, nuanced counter-arguments that some commenters posted on her blog were swamped by abuse, and now they've been lost altogether. As someone who writes about this area, and wishes artists' views were heard more often in the file-sharing debate alongside those of politicians and rights-owners, it's a crying shame.
The blog was a chance for fans of Allen and her fellow artists to learn what they really feel about music piracy. But – and this should have been the real point for people who disagreed with Lily – it was a chance for a two-way discussion. A chance for these artists to learn why fans file-share, or to find out about some of the success stories from bands who've tried to make the phenomenon work for them.
It could have been a real exchange of views. But the hatred dished out to Allen by the internet trolls may well make other artists think twice about joining the debate in future.
FAC's paraphrased point – file-sharing is unstoppable: deal with it – is probably true. But here's another thought for the flamers. A lot of bands are angry about file-sharing. Deal with it.
Listen to their opinions, and come back with a constructive response. Point them in Trent Reznor's direction – he wrote a great forum post about why DIY music distribution isn't just for the big guns. Point them to the many positive stories on Techdirt about artists harnessing file-sharing to sell more music.
But if you care about music – really care about the music you love and the artists who make it – then you should want more of them to be participating in the file-sharing debate, even if they start off with views that are (to your mind) ignorant or naïve.
There's been plenty of ignorance on show in recent days, but only a small part of it has come from Lily Allen.
You seem to have got the niche from the root, Awesome work
Regards
Posted by: Maryland Window Replacement | 18 January 2010 at 01:02 PM