Allen rails at the filesharers

Lily Allen doesn't have any time for filesharers:

Referring to FAC and its comments, Allen said: "These guys from huge bands said file-sharing music is fine. It probably is fine for them - they do sell-out arena tours and have the biggest Ferrari collections in the world. For new talent though, file-sharing is a disaster.

"The more difficult it is for new artists to make it, the less new artists you'll see and the more British music will be nothing but puppets paid for by Simon Cowell."

The idea that record labels reliance for twenty years on the CD back catalogue bonanza, demands for quick returns leading to bands being dropped after one album and collusion with the likes of Cowell and Fuller might have wrecked chart music all without the help of filesharing doesn't seem to have occurred.

The possibility that new acts are finding different ways to find audiences, and measuring success in other ways than the singles chart, doesn't seem to have occurred.

Lily explains that this isn't like home taping killing music:

"The Featured Artists Coalition say that file sharing's 'like a sampler, like taping your mate's music', but mix tapes and recording from the radio are actually very different to the file sharing that happens today.

"Mix tapes were rubbish quality - you bought the real music, because you liked the track and wanted to hear it without the DJ cutting off the end of each song. In digital land pirated tracks are as good quality as bought tracks, so there's not a need to buy for better quality."

It might be better if Lily had decided to deal either with the taping off the radio analogy, or the mix tape analogy, or the borrowing music to tape off your mates analogy, rather than stirring all three together in a 'that's totally different'.

Peter D - to whom, thanks for the link - pointed out that Lily shouldn't worry too much. After all, there's one artist who made a name for themselves by releasing digital mixtapes through their MySpace page - using the ability to make unlicensed copies of other artist's work as a way of attracting attention to their own music. And they did alright for themselves - didn't you, Lily Allen?