Mac DeMarco Tells Concert Goers To Go Pirate His Music
from the piracy-promo dept
We had just been talking about Ed Sheeran suggesting that piracy actually helped his career rather than hurt it, as well as his decision to go to bat against his label for a fan who covered one of his songs, but he's not the only one out there who doesn't see filesharing as the great music Satan the labels would have us believe. Artist Mac DeMarco announced on stage at Coachella that his latest album had leaked online. The instructions he then gave the concert-goers is not the norm amongst artists, to say the least.
However, instead of begging fans to wait for the official release to come out, DeMarco said that he didn’t give a shit and encouraged them to download it from pirate sites.
“We’re going to play a song we’ve only played twice before. It’s a new song, came out a couple of days ago. But you know what? The album leaked yesterday, so I don’t give a shit anymore.”
“Download it. Pirate Bay, Torrents.to, Soulseek, Napster, Limewire, Kazaa. Just get it, just get it,” DeMarco added.
And, yes, much has been made in reports about this that DeMarco specifically instructed fans to go pirate his music on platforms that no longer exist, like Napster and Limewire, but I'm somewhat sure that this part of the line was done tongue in cheek. It's unlikely that a 26-year-old musician who is aware of The Pirate Bay is somehow not aware of older filesharing platforms no longer being in use. Instead, it seems at least as likely to be a subtle nod to how long the music industry has managed to survive from all of the supposedly dire threats at its doors all these years, but that part is purely speculation.
What's not is that DeMarco doesn't see a threat in filesharing. Telling fans at a concert to go get an album from torrent sites before it has even hit the shelves is a pretty clear message: DeMarco isn't worried about piracy. And why should he be? He was performing in front of paying fans despite the certainty that all of his previously released music is likely available online for free as well. Yet here's DeMarco, making money by making music.
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Filed Under: mac demarco, music, piracy
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They certainly think of themselves enough that i think they are rather well covered in this regard.
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Also, fans of the band will go to concerts and will buy band merchandise.
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Artist re-education coming up
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Does a magnet link fit inside a tweet?
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Good times.
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It does matter what the artists think. They can sign up with a label which will harass their fans, or not. Far too many artists willingly associate themselves with assholes. Hell, one band straight-up called them that ("just like the Recording Industry Assholes of America, they promote mass ignorance") and signed up with an RIAA label shortly after. ("But they don't get much money when you buy the album", they said, paraphrased, to the fans who bitched. Those were the RIAA-boycott days; now it seems in-fashion again for consumers to give money to those who would opress them.)
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Love it
"One cassette version of the Dead Kennedys e.p. In God We Trust Inc. had a blank side, printed with the message "Home taping is killing record industry profits! We left this side blank so you can help."
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How "innovative".
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Only marketroids and other toxic cyanobacteria would have noticed.
Oh, techdirt's Alexa rankings have dropped? I'll have to go over to theCashRegister.com and see what shillForShillings Orlowsky says, I betg HIS Alexa rankings are rising!
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Mac DeMarco my fav-e singer! New album 'This Old Dog' is nice, much better than 'Salad Days', My Old Man best track & lyrics he's ever released.
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