I've just watched the ethics/religious BBC TV programme "The Big Questions", the
last big question of which was about the ethics of downloading music for free.

It was disappointing that nobody pointed out the benefits of the internet,
particularly for new artists. Nowadays you don't need a recording contract to
become famous, because you can publish music yourself on your own websites or on
social networking sites (with MySpace partcularly popular for music but I've
also put music on Facebook, Bebo and Multiply). You can allow your tracks to be
listened to for free, with or without the ability to download them, and make
money using legal downloads via such sites if you wish. What's more, you can
select some of your better tracks for free listening, giving potential fans an
idea of which your better albums are if they want to buy a CD.

You don't need to rely as much on radio or TV stations to play your songs in
order to become famous or have a big hit. Radio 1 has a playlist which restricts
the tracks most DJs are allowed to play, reflecting the musical tastes and
political views of the bureaucrats who construct it. Sandi Thom, who became
famous through broadcasting performances from her basement, would never have had
a number one hit with "I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (with flowers in my hair)" if
she had to rely on radio airplay, because the lyrics were so radical (although
she was wrong to say that she was born too late for revolution!).

Feargal Sharkey is the main spokesperson of (in his case former) musicians
opposed to illegal downloading. He came across in the programme as a bitter and
twisted middle aged man - a real disappointment for someone who sang "a good
heart is hard to find", going to number 1 with that track (which I really
liked). Someone who truly has a good heart would empathise with his or her fans
who download such songs for free! I think Sharkey was good himself then, but now
has bad intentions, encouraging fellow musicians to be selfish, caring most
about the money they make through music. I talk about the struggle between those
with good and bad intentions in my New Good Intentions Manifesto at
http://www.socialiststeve.in/good-intentions-manifesto.html.

Sharkey complained about 80% of new musicians and songwriters hardly making any
money through music. What about the old days when record companies and agents
took most of the money? Now you can put music on legal download sites very
cheaply (SongCast for example put them on the major sites for a small fee and
you get all the money apart from the cut taken by the sites). And shouldn't you
record and play music because you enjoy it and/or want to change the world
rather than to maximise profits?

There will always be people who pay for legal downloads and CDs, whether or not
the threat to disconnect the broadband services of persistent downloaders goes
ahead, as well as go to concerts, so those who forecast the death of the music
industry are being ridiculous. And if most musicians and songwriters are poor,
they will be less likely to sell out anyway.

I have made recordings with the bands Galaxia and Red Day, and put them for free
downloading at http://www.galaxiamusic.org and http://www.red-day.net - I have
put "copyleft" notices on the MP3 files indicating that they may be freely
distributed except for profit. Copyleft was initially used for computer
software; I worked at a university developing my artficial
intelligence/simulation language SDML, rather than getting a much higher paid
job in industry, and we distributed it copyleft too, and I think it has been
used by good and bad conspirators modelling people and organisations in society
in opposition to or in support of the agenda of organisations like the CIA!

--
Steve Wallis (Manchester, England)
Preferred email address: revolutionarysocialiststeve@...⁠
Super-blog: http://www.twitter.com/socialiststeve⁠
Other blogs: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/steve-wallis-socialist-blog,⁠
http://blog.myspace.com/galaxiasteve⁠
My socialist website: http://www.socialiststeve.me.uk⁠[ Indian mirror
(containing same files but without publicly viewable statistics):
http://www.socialiststeve.in⁠]
My pages at Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/socialiststeve,⁠ MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/galaxiasteve⁠ and Bebo:
http://www.bebo.com/SteveW519⁠
Founder, Ethical Capitalism Network: http://www.ethicalcapitalism.net⁠
Founder, Foundation for Proportional Representation-based Socialism:
http://www.PRsocialism.org⁠
Founder, Revolutionary Platform Network: http://www.revolutionaryplatform.net⁠
My revolutionary socialist band, Galaxia: http://www.galaxiamusic.net,⁠
http://www.myspace.com/galaxiamusic,⁠http://www.facebook.com/pages/Galaxia-a-r\
evolutionary-socialist-band/84310120180,⁠http://www.bebo..com/galaxiamusic⁠
My socialist band, Red Day:
http://www.red-day.net,⁠http://www.myspace.com/reddayband,⁠http://www.facebo\
ok.com/pages/Red-Day/27468311341⁠
Author, "Revolution Destroyed? Have I ensured that a world socialist revolution
will never happen?": http://www.revolutiondestroyed.net