50 Cent, one of the world’s most popular hip hop acts, has said that record companies need to move with the time and recognize that filesharing is here to stay and that this is not a bad thing for artists.

“What is important for the music industry to understand is that filesharing doesn’t hurt artists,” said Fiddy.

Say what you want about 50 Cent, but here is a major star who appears to be astutely more aware of the state of the music industry than most major record labels. While record labels continue to attack people who indulge in filesharing and bring them to “justice”, yet another high-profile artist is speaking out in favor of filesharing.

50 Cent continued by saying that the music industry must concentrate its efforts on maximizing potential revenue from merchandising and concert sales, rather than wasting its resources in a futile battle against the millions of people out there who use file sharing services like Limewire.

“It is the only way they can get their marketing money back,” he added.

50 Cent also lashed out against the way many record labels have jumped on the ring-tones bandwagon. It’s difficult to assess the impact that a statement like this can have, but it sends out a clear message to 50 Cent’s fans that file sharing is justifiable — and there are a lot of 50 Cent fans out there.

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