Although there is currently a clampdown on filesharing in Sweden, a large number of Swedish artists have said that they are in favor of filesharing. A survey of Swedish musicians found that 38% of them want filesharing to be legalized.
Thinking with more logic than record labels, the artists argue that filesharing could be used to promote their work. What’s interesting is that it’s the younger artists who are keen on filesharing. The older guys and gals say that about 80% of their profits have been lost to filesharing.
The young guns are willing to embrace filesharing and want to use it to enhance their careers. Some bands, like Lamont, have already benefited from filesharing. Lamont were featured on the front page of The Pirate Bay, leading to more than 100,000 downloads of their album.
It’s this kind of forward thinking that could make or break the way the music industry goes over the next few years.
Filesharing is good. Filesharing is bad. The debate will never end. The chief of record label EMI’s digital unit has gone on record as saying that he is pro-filesharing.
Douglas Merrill also said that he thinks suing people for filesharing is a bad idea. Merrill made some interesting comments in an interview with CNET. He actually said that filesharing is good for artists.
The music industry, according to Merrill, should be putting its resources to better use than trying to stamp out filesharing. Music fans should not be the target of the music biz’s frustration.
Merrill also pointed out that it’s important to distinguish when filesharing is good and when it is bad, because even he admits that it can be destructive. One option for the future is to introduce subscription or ISP fees, he said.
Seems like there are those within the music scene who are a bit more grounded than the folks down at the RIAA.
We’re not sure if this is good or bad news. As a proposed solution to the endless onslaught of students being sued for filesharing, a proposal is being drawn up by several major record labels that would impose a fee on students, which would then allow them to do all the filesharing they want.
The “covenant not to sue” would cover students’ filesharing habits and would likely be passed onto students as part of their tuition fees. If this goes through, there is no guarantee that campuses will play ball, but it is one possible solution.
However, it would feel a lot like the students are giving in, some from an ethical point of view, nothing will have changed. The only difference would be that the RIAA could potentially make even more money from students. The fees would, of course, likely not filter down to artists, but rather go straight to the RIAA. This may be the only solution to a problem that has gone on for far too long.
What would your iPod, your iPhone or your iPod touch be without software? It’s not a trick question. Your little gadget would be entirely useless. It would be a big useless hard drive, and that’s not what you bought it for, is it? Thought not.
So how do you get all your music, movies, games and apps onto the little blighter, then? You do a Google search for iPhone downloads and go exploring, that’s what. There are many sites out there that offer hundreds of free iPhone downloads. We can’t recommend any but suffice to say there are good sites for iPhone downloads, and really bad ones. Use your sixth sense and you’ll be on a site worth your time with very little effort indeed. Choose carefully, because that ‘big useless hard drive’ only has limited space, and in a iPhone downloads frenzy you’re sure to fill it up quickly.
Big news regarding Comcast came this week as the ISP announced that it will no longer restrict P2P filesharing traffic for Internet users. Comcast will soon treat all type of Internet usage equally, which is great news for filesharing fans because it means their downloads are about to get a heck of a lot faster.
Comcast will work with BitTorrent Inc to implement more-effective ways of transferring large files. Comcast’s interfering with filesharing traffic was confirmed last October. Comcast has continued to defend its actions as large-scale debates broke out questioning whether Comcast has the right to control Internet traffic in this way.
The problem is that Comcast hasn’t stopped restricting filesharing just yet, so users will have a bit of a wait before they see their connections speed up. It’s still unclear exactly what changes Comcast will implement, but this does, at face value, appear to be good news.
Proving that video games and music downloads can be combined, the game Rock Band has now reached six million legal music downloads. Even more interesting is the news that Harmonix will release a major patch for the game giving users access to a full online music store. Why hasn’t someone thought of this before?
Players will be able to get music downloads, as well as cover art. You will be able to preview songs before you buy them, too. Rock Band is a major step forward in the world of video games because it allows players customize their gaming experience by bringing their own music into the fray.
When you buy the game, you get 58 songs to play with, but music can be downloaded for between $0.99 and $2.99. MTV will soon use Rock Band as a way to promote new songs and albums. This really is the future of gaming.
You can’t open up a web browser without reading something about the iPhone. The phenomenal success of the Apple gadget has one again hit headlines with the apparent imminent release of a filesharing application that would allow Apple iPhone users to share music and other files.
Buzz Technologies is expected to release Me2u soon. The iPhone filesharing program will allow iPhone users to get free music downloads. What could be better? Almost three quarters of iPhone users listen to music with their handsets, so the release of a filesharing program would make a lot of people very happy.
The potential for Me2u is huge. Furthermore, this gives people yet another reason to buy an iPhone. With so many users of the Internet embracing filesharing technology, it was only a matter of time before that technology became truly mobile. It’s unclear yet how Apple will react to this news given the large amount of music the company shift through its iTunes music store.
The talk of the SXSW festival in Texas was about a proposed fee for filesharing. The idea is that ISPs may soon begin adding a small fee onto Internet users’ monthly bills. This fee would then go to the music industry to compensate for losses from filesharing.
Of course, none of the money the RIAA gets in lawsuits goes to actual music artists, so it’s likely that this fee will end up the same way. A similar idea was proposed in Canada but shot down because it makes no sense.
For a start, not everyone uses filesharing programs, so you can’t work out who should pay and who shouldn’t. There is talk of this fee being optional. If users pay, they would then be “legit” and able to do all the filesharing they want.
We can’t imagine how such an idea could ever be workable. It would require highly sophisticated levels of monitoring and it could effectively run online music stores out of business.
The tables have been turned on the RIAA now with yet another announcement that recording artists are considering suing the music body. It’s been revealed that none of the $400 million the RIAA received in court settlements from with the likes of KaZaa and Napster has gone to recording artists.
There have been a few murmurings of this in the past few weeks. Lawyers who have previously represented the likes of the Rolling Stones and Van Halen have said that artists are upset with the RIAA. All the money that’s come from taking on filesharing networks in the name of honor and justice has gone, well, it’s anyone’s guess where it’s gone.
Artists are apparently preparing to do battle with the RIAA, which would make a change from the RIAA doing battle with the entire world for filesharing. The ball has been set rolling. The RIAA says that there isn’t much money left after subtracting legal fees.
In a move that really highlights the ridiculous stance taken by the RIAA with regards to filesharing, MTV has announced that it will gather data from filesharing programs and BitTorrent in order to compile its playlists for The Music Factor (TMF).
Dutch music-channel TMF will use filesharing information because it is one of the easiest ways to spot trends in people’s music tastes. Spot the mixed messages being sent to the public here? On the one hand, we are told that filesharing is evil and wrong, but then a huge entity like MTV comes out and says that it will use filesharing to dictate its programming.
By the logic employed by the RIAA, this is like MTV surveying thieves and asking them what their top 5 CD-steals were this week. Initial plans to use filesharing to compile charts were shot down by the music industry because it would give out the wrong message. Obviously this sends out a much better message.
Lest we forget that record companies hypocritically use filesharing information as part of their market research. *cough cough* Interescope.