I just recently read the article from A&R Worldwide’s Newsletter on Colin Lester’s letter to Britain’s Secretary State of Business, Innovation & Skills (Peter Mandelson)
See Below:
“MMF (Music Managers Forum) Roll of Honour recipient and BASCA Gold Badge winnerColin Lester, CEO of artist management company CLM Entertainment (whose clients include Craig David, Remi Nicole and others and who has previously guided the careers of Arctic Monkeys and Travis) has added his voice to the illegal file sharing debate with a letter to Britain’s Secretary State of Business, Innovation & Skills Peter Mandelson, offering his support for the recent proposals recommended by Lord Mandelson to tackle the problem.
In his letter to the Lord Mandelson Lester stated, “I am writing in support of your recent proposals to combat the illegal file sharing of music. I can no longer stand by in silence as we in the music industry prevaricate over the right course of action to take in order to protect our future. I am an artist manager and have represented many highly successful, multi-million selling artists throughout my career including the Arctic Monkeys, Travis and Craig David to name but a few.”
Lester added, “I and the artists I represent both agree that this issue is the key challenge facing our industry and that the longer we dither about the rights and wrongs of taking punitive action against those who steal our livelihoods the worse the situation will get.
Whilst the vast majority of those involved in music agree that illegal file sharing is wrong there remains an ongoing debate as to how to tackle it. The recent argument put forward by the Featured Artists Coalition for example, in response to the Government’s recent report on illegal file sharing that, ‘the stick is now in danger of being way out of proportion to the carrot,’ fails to recognize the fact that ‘carrot’ approach has failed miserably!”
He continued, “There has also been a point of view advanced that illegal file sharing is good for the marketing and promotion of music. There is some truth in that but the benefits of any positive promotion gained through illegal distribution are, in my opinion, far outweighed by the damage caused to the future income of the creators of and investors in that music.
“Let us not forget that artists and copyright owners still retain the right to give away their music if they choose to, but it should be remembered that is their right to give it away, not the consumer’s right to steal it. The music consumer, as with any other citizen of this country, cannot simply choose which laws to obey and which to ignore. Without enforcement and punishment of those who break the law any legislation is pointless.”
He concluded, “It is vital therefore that the whole industry works together with government to resolve this issue, which continues to destroy the livelihoods of both record companies and artists alike. We must advocate and support a zero tolerance policy against illegal file sharing and take a united stance against this issue before we don’t have an industry left to defend.”
Colin Lester has also resigned from the Featured Artist Coalition (FAC) effective last week, as did all the artists he represents, over what he perceives as the “misguided” views of the organization over the issue.”
My Thoughts on the matter: in no way is this to take a side but more so to open up debate and conversation etc..
I think people are over reacting to the whole file sharing issues, lets face it VHS |BETAMAX | CASSETTE | didn’t end the music industry. It’s been a proven fact that DRM didn’t work and either did Sony’s Root Kit which caused more issues then I think they liked in regards to messing up the end users computer I should know, I happen to purchase an Amerie CD at the time and popped it in to listen to it on my laptop and it was a roller coaster ride from their on in, who covers the damages done to the end user over intrusive copy protections which have been noted to cause damages to computers operating systems etc…
1. The quality of todays Artist and the content of a full album is not what it used to be, hence the single and hence the reason why iTunes is selling so many songs and not to mention offering a (fair play free) version i.e DRM less
2. Will creating a great album mean we will end file sharing I doubt it
3. a lot of the up and coming youth are turning to streaming a playlist they can customize because they just want to listen to the artists songs they like and not necessarily buy anything at that present time kinda like radio 2.0 per say i.e. pandora, last fm etc… refer to Tech Crunch’s great article on Music on the Internet part1 and part 2
4. a large majority of the people who share a song, album or share a video end up purchasing the physical or in todays times the digital copy.
5. I find the argument very debatable, lets say you have a company selling clothes and you give away an entire run of a certain line for free to a city state or country what are the odds that a percentage of the people will purchase from that line again or possible someone who sees the line on someone of influence or in their peer group and want to purchase the line, I agree with Chris Anderson on the Free Model you can get the audio book for Free here
So how in reference to music is this well I see that an indie artist or even a major can not lose to have his or her album or song populated on major torrent sites, as it generates interest, searches and conversations, but if the quality of the content of the album, song is bad it could hurt the artists sales but if the quality of the content is good i.e a hit single then it can do wonders for that artist i.e. ringtones ticket sales and swag.
6. Another key point is trying to find clean files in the torrent community is a daunting task , not to mention some of the quality of the files are rubbish and yes I know the HD and higher bit rates are out their, but again it’s takes time to get them, point being is that if some can create a service to fulfil the end user with fast speeds, still in theatre releases, screenings, early releases of albums and singles like they do on iTunes, next day or same day TV shows etc, will be the big winner cause busy people don’t have the time to try to search through the torrents maze of good and bad files, viruses and non viruses and might not have the time or extra monies to see that movie with his family, because the ticket prices are $13 bucks a pop, so offer him a release still in theatres for $19.99 to keep and own.
In conclusion I think the entertainment industry needs to do its job better and adjust to the current times, work with the artist to produce better content, use the tools and technologies that are out their to market and expose your artist whether you’re an unknown or a major celebrity, think how fast a hot single could travel on twitter let alone a torrent site and the potential of what that single could do if it was bundled with links to the artists MySpace, Twitter Facebook fan page, and or links to up and coming shows swag etc.
I think in the future regardless of your profession, bad products will be weeded out quickly….
So I hope the artist & people who make products continue to make monies from them from sales and the fans continue to support the artists, but maybe the producers, CEOs, companies and labels could start to look outside the box and test the walls and new ideas on how to utilize an monetize the current tools considering their products are already being shared why not put the R&D into utilizing the tools and technologies or improving them rather than millions of dollars or root kits DRM’s copy protection and prosecuting the end user….
