If File Sharing Is Killing The UK Music Industry... Why Is The UK Music Industry Growing?

from the damn-those-pesky-facts dept

Lily Allen, who last we saw was copying Techdirt to convince the world that copying was bad (it's bad!) and destroying the industry, has been trying to get some other UK musicians to speak up on her behalf as well. Singer James Blunt took the the UK's Times Online to speak out in support of Lily and kicking fans offline. His reasoning is quite puzzling, however:

The world over, people are stealing music in its millions in the form of illegal file-sharing. It's easy to do, and has become accepted by many, but people need to know that it is destroying people's livelihoods and suffocating emerging British artists.

The music business is made up of thousands of jobbing musicians, producers, mixers and engineers creating and shaping popular music and culture, but illegal file-sharing is cutting off the income from their work. Without the revenue from established artists, record labels cannot fund emerging musicians. They'll just re-master the Beatles albums again, because they can't afford to put an amazing new band into a studio to record something that may surpass Sergeant Pepper.

Now, considering how long file sharing has been popular, you might think we'd be seeing some effect by now, right? Except that the music industry's own economists in the UK recently did a study where they noted that the music industry has been growing. That's because it's easier and cheaper to create, promote and distribute music -- and that's opened up many new avenues for making money. So how is it killing the industry? Only in the minds of a few who don't know the facts.

Blunt goes on to support Peter Mandelson's plan to kick people off the internet for file sharing, without bothering to explain how that's likely to get people to want to keep giving money to musicians.

Filed Under: file sharing, james blunt, lily allen, music, uk