Grammy Winner: If You're A Good Musician, You Have Nothing To Fear With Piracy

Say That Again

from the but-if-you're-bad... dept

Wed, Nov 4th 2009 2:11pm — Mike Masnick

Last year, we wrote about Grammy award wining singer Joss Stone and her opinions on file sharing where she said she "loves it" and thinks "it's brilliant." More recently, Stone was asked about her EMI labelmate Lily Allen's recent misguided attack on file sharing (even as she, with the help of EMI, was file sharing a ton of tracks). Stone's response, as noted at Freakbits, is basically that musicians who are good have nothing to fear, but she could see why musicians who aren't very good (apparently, she means Ms. Allen) do have reason to fear:

"She [Lily Allen] needs to sell records because she's not a singer, and that's not an offense to her because I think that she knows that too," says Stone.

"...when musicians are really making real music people come to the show and that's what we make our money from, from playing live. And I think it's probably harder for an artist like Lily and many other pop acts. It's really about the track and about their personality and their celebrity and that's how they make their money is selling those records."

Stone says that Lily cannot win a fight against music piracy, and for that matter, neither can anyone else.

"So let's just accept it and let's see it as something that can be beautiful and it might change music for the better," she says pragmatically. "It might sort the weeds from the flowers."

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Filed Under: joss stone, lily allen, piracy

21 Comments

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Thomas (profile), 4 Nov 2009 @ 2:08pm

Oh snap!
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Nov 2009 @ 2:14pm

Burn.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Nov 2009 @ 2:14pm

Coming from Joss Stone, that is a true load of bull.
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Anonymous Poster, 4 Nov 2009 @ 2:20pm

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn. My respect for Joss Stone just went up QUITE a few notches.
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Derek Kerton (profile), 4 Nov 2009 @ 2:39pm

Joss stone just entered the "Music for free will only work for..." camp.

But her argument is free music only works for good musicians. Hey, she might be right.

If your schtick is all about being hot looking, or dancing, or studio production and auto-tune...I'm not sure it behooves you to get your music out there. If you're a bad singer, it will be harder to earn money as a singer at live events. For those artists, better to keep the mediocre music in low circulation, and get the magazine covers, TV appearances, paparazzi nip slips, and videos in high circulation!
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Nov 2009 @ 2:46pm

Re:
Please expand upon your comment. I'm interested to hear why its such a load of bull. I tend to agree with her assessment.
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interval, 4 Nov 2009 @ 3:04pm

Re:
By implication Joss Stone has little to no skill. I disagree.
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Alessar (profile), 4 Nov 2009 @ 3:10pm

Lily Shot Herself in the Foot
I was slightly familiar with Lily Allen from her tabloid exploits, so I was surprised when I heard her single The Fear on the radio and really liked it. I bought that track from Amazon mp3 after previewing the album there and deciding it was a 1-hit wonder deal for me.

Later on this summer, remixer Dr. Rosen Rosen released a remixed version of her album. The ENTIRE album. Apparently Lily Allen had made all her tracks available for remixers and mashup-makers and he went whole hog.

I loved it.

What he did with her album was brilliant and I listened to it again and again. It made me want to compare his mixes to the real thing, and made me think that the short preview clips on the mp3 store were inadequate to appreciate them. I figured even if I didn't like anything on the official record except the single (the one track I felt he didn't improve on) I was not really out anything. I was enjoying the alternate version.

I was just waiting for payday and then Lily spoke out and it soured me so much that she lost that sale. Heck, I'm not even enjoying the Dr. Rosen Rosen remix because she's damaged her image to me so much.

So, even if Lily Allen is more of a (as they used to call them) "studio musician" as compared to a live or touring musician, she has every opportunity to drive sales and be creative. Online downloading is really not about piracy, except in the case of poor college students who don't have the bucks; and that's nothing new, back in the day people just used to copy each others' cassettes. Downloading is mostly about sampling and ease of access.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Nov 2009 @ 3:30pm

Re: Re:
I agree with interval, it seems you are implying Joss has little to no skill. I wholeheartedly disagree.
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kevjohn, 4 Nov 2009 @ 3:46pm

Ohhh, so that's who Lily Allen is. I keep seeing her pop up all over the place with her boobs hanging out but I never knew who she was. Now I know, and I don't care. All I need to do now is find out who Joss Stone is.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Nov 2009 @ 3:53pm

Joss Stone is an incredibly talented singer. Check it out for free on youtube. Just amazing.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Nov 2009 @ 3:55pm

Re:
Coming from an anonymous coward, that is a true load of craptasticaliousness. Bull-oney.
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MonicaS (profile), 4 Nov 2009 @ 4:40pm

Obviously
I think most people now realize that downloading music off the internet does not hurt musicians as much as we're told it does. The story was always that by downloading you're taking money away from the musicians you loved. But it was a lie. The money lost were by the promoters and record labels. With P2P they have become irrelevant. P2P to me is what the radio was back when. Its just a way for musicians to share their music and hopefully get people to their concerts where they make the real money. End of argument, move on. Monica S Los Angeles Computer Repair http://www.sebecomputercare.com
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Nov 2009 @ 5:21pm

Re: Re: Re:
No, again, you miss the point.

Joss Stone is a great singer, but also a bit of a flake. She is the one who complains about having a rich lifestyle and getting to travel the world, living in high end houses and getting to record her albums where she likes (the latest one in the Bahamas, boo-hoo). She has gotten rich off of selling CDs. Now she maybe feels she is rich enough that it doesn't matter, or feels somehow superior to others. Either way, she has a nasty reputation for being a diva, showing up late for concerts, and generally doing her damndest to NOT CwF, but rather to take them for granted.

Great singer, bad at everything else, and certainly not a great and credible source.
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NullOp, 4 Nov 2009 @ 5:24pm

Ha!
Yet another idiot joins the "only we can do it right" club. Egotistical mornons!
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Nov 2009 @ 5:56pm

the only thing i have to say is

who is Lily Allen? i have never heard of this person before.
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 4 Nov 2009 @ 6:59pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
IOW, She understands that most of her income doesn't come from selling shiny plastic discs. Good for her.
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ChadBroChill (profile), 4 Nov 2009 @ 8:30pm

Re:
lol
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Nov 2009 @ 1:54am

ah, a chick fight
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anarkista, 5 Nov 2009 @ 2:02am

When AC (aka Anonymous Shill) runs out of arguments for his RIAA boss he has to use ad hominen. Joss Stone this, Joss Stone that...

The actual argument? Why bother?

The genie is out of the bottle. Got that? Neither you nor your RIAA boss can put it back in. Educate yourself. Computer illiteracy in the 21st century doesn't look good.
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Hephaestus (profile), 5 Nov 2009 @ 5:48am

Re: Obviously
"P2P to me is what the radio was back when."

Nice way of looking at it! mind if I use it on my site?
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