Posted on 07/17/2005 12:36:37 AM PDT by nickcarraway
A new rock group featuring former members of The Clash and Generation X has taken a novel approach to the issue of piracy by urging their fans to copy their music.
Carbon Silicon make all their recordings freely available online, and actively encourage bootlegging or filming of their gigs.
They even attack the current waves of litigation surrounding illegally copied music in their song Gangs Of England, which includes the line, "if you want the record, press record".
"What we're talking about here is fans who are sharing music," Tony James, formally of Sigue Sigue Sputnik and Generation X - who formed the group with ex-Clash guitarist Mick Jones - told BBC World Service's The Music Biz programme.
"It's just like you did when you were young, when you made a cassette of your favourite tracks you'd love, and would give it to a friend and say 'listen to this.'
"Everyone's going to say, 'hang on - if they've got it already, why are they going to buy the record?' But what we find is actually, people really like buying the records."
Demos online
The music industry has been grappling with issues of piracy over the last few years, in particular since broadband became popular.
Artists who have backed anti-piracy campaigns, include Metallica, Tatu and Peter Gabriel.
But James said that he considered the internet to be the "most exciting thing that's happened to rock and roll".
In particular, he pointed out that people could now record songs in their bedrooms and make them available to the world, and new artists no longer needed "a label, or a manager, or a BBC Radio playlist".
Carbon Silicon use their website to show the development of their songs. Demos are put on the web so people can track how they came together.
"We feel that it's almost like if I could go and watch Lennon and McCartney in the studio making Sgt Pepper, and watch them on the internet making that record, that would be a really exciting thing," James explained.
"So I think what we'll see in the future is people will pay to be there - to be part of the creative process. That's a really exciting thing.
"Our ideas of copyright, and what constitutes a record, will change in the future."
Their music is probably worth every penny.
IF the band is big and well established, people would probably pay to watch them record a new album live...?
ping
click the picture to check out the whole interview!
click here to listen to the interview as an MP3 file!
Q = question
SM = Scott Morgan
Q- At this stage of your career you said youve been doing this since 1961 you started playing guitar What do you think about the music business? I mean, the state of rock & roll, or whatever you want to call it A little sad right now Id say. What are your thoughts?
SM- I keep hearing the quotes about record sales being down $20 billion a year or something ridiculous For it to be down $20 billion a year, means that it had to be up really high, like $60 billion, or I dont know what it was, but... theyre selling a lot of records. Theyre making a lot of money. But, I think the problem is, theyre not really trying to make good records, theyre trying to make records thatll sell. I think thats the whole problem.
Q- Have you got the solution? Wheres the magic bullet?
SM- After a while, I think people are just going to get tired of paying money for crap. Theyre going to want, come on you know! Dont just give me some cooked up in the studio, expensive, crappy can of Campbells soup or something! Come up with something new, something good. Something with some imagination, something with some soul, some heart in it, something you believe in. Whatever.
Q- When do you think this whole trend-
SM- Its not just the record labels, its the whole thing. Its the radio, and MTV, and corporate media, and corporate agencies. Its just a big mafia of music business.
Q- I dont understand, I guess, why things are the way they are.
SM- Well, because for one thing, the people that run the business arent necessarily the people that love the music. At all levels. Lets say youre a journalist. You might not be able to make money as a journalist writing about what you like, you might have to write about whatever they tell you to write about. If youre a DJ, youre not picking those records, youre not playing the records that you play in your car, or at home, youre playing what youre told to play. And I guess if youre in A&R at a record label, youre putting out the records that the suits approve of. So the people that really love the music arent making the decisions, and thats a bad development in the music business.
Q- That leads me to another question what do you think about the internet, and I guess not necessarily specifically MP3s but the ability for any band anywhere to start advertising their music and getting exposure. What do you think about that?
SM- Its great.
Q- Do you have any problems with file sharing, of MP3s?
SM- No.
Q- You dont have a problem when you go to Napster and look up your songs?
SM- No. As a matter of fact we put our stuff on Napster.
Q- Im the kind of guy that when I buy a record, I want the whole package.
SM- Exactly. This is the Alanis Morissette theory. And it all holds up, and everybody knows its true in the music business, that she makes a record for her corporate record label, shes going to get a get a dollar for every copy. OK? Fine, thats all fine, thats cool. But if she does a concert somewhere, shes going to make a lot of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars, and sell maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars of her merch. And its all her money. So, to her, and I think the Grateful Dead will look at it the same way, and a lot of other bands, its really to their advantage to have people know their music, even if they get it for free, because theyre going to come see the band, theyre going to be fans.
Q- What do you think of people taping shows?
SM- Fine, I just want a tape.
Q- Obviously not for resale.
SM- No, no. Were talking about sharing, file swapping, that sort of thing. Its just like if you made me a cassette, whats illegal about that? If you made a cassette of your favorite music, or I did the same for you, I dont get it
why should that be illegal? Its just stupid. It doesnt make any sense!
The Dead and Allman Bros have allowed recordings for years, IIRC.
Now many, many bands have followed their example. Drive-By Truckers. Wilco. Gov't Mule. Gourds. Widespread Panic.
Thanks for the ping!!! I'll be forwarding this interview to alot of my music buddies!!
Thanks Again!
This is Tony James' new project since reforming Sigue Sigue Sputnik. Blah, bland crap from a blah, bland socialist jerk who lives in a manor home in the west country and plays the rebel rock star. Nothing to see here...
The real problem is that the price of a cd is ridiculously overinflated. In my local mall "music" store, a new copy of Tom Petty's Greatest Hits will set you back $18. One CD. Eighteen dollars.
Now, they want to convince me that a cd of 20 year old music should cost me EIGHTEEN DOLLARS when I know damn well the cd is less than a penny a copy to create? C'mon. The public isn't stupid.
Sharing live music is a benefit to any band that treats live performance as the highest and best expression of their craft.
I don't see how it could be otherwise.
I agree.
However, the article is about what's wrong with rock and roll. The answer, IMHO, is that cd's are too expensive, plain and simple. There's no reason for cd's to be as expensive as they are, and the public knows this. If there were reasonably priced alternatives out there, people would buy more of them. As it is, supply and demand dictates that when people can get it free vs. having to pay out the nose, they will. The RIAA knows damn well what the problem is, and until they admit it, all the lawsuits in the world won't matter.
Well, you are correct that they are too expensive. So are many things. The biggest problem with the 'product' being pushed by the music industry is it largely sucks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.