Today the Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan published a survey where they’ve asked 100 musicians what their attitude to file sharing is. The article is pointing out how absent musicians are in the arousing debate. It’s a good point. And I think it’s a part of the problem - or at least a part of the solution. It’s obvious that the present and the future, more than the past, is focused around music and musicians.
The Sydvenskan poll showed that 38% want to legalize all file sharing and, on the contrary, that 59% have been file sharing themselves.
Musicians have lots of well needed goodwill to contribute with to the music business. And by being a part of the debate they can also put more pressure on the business to develop new models. I would love to see more initiatives from artists and is looking forward to the launch of Playable, a cooperation between Lamont and The Pirate bay.
2 Comments
1 monki wrote:
I agree that artists have been absent, but I’m not sure that what is needed is more opinions. I guess most artists really don’t have an opinion or don’t know what threat or opportunity digital media is. I don’t think we shouldn’t force them to have one either. (They pay people like you to have it for them don’t they? ;)) Someday they will have to make choices though. If they want to continue with traditional models or try something new. A hard choice…
I’d rather see 1 experiment of someone using digital media creatively in a way that enhances the experience of the music and allows new business models than 100 opinions.
2 Martin J. Thörnkvist wrote:
Agree. I used the word initiative instead of opinion. That’s what differ artists from administrators - they can do, we can suggest.