Illy Fights For Artists' Rights
Filed under: Anglophilia > Lily Allen > Music Minute
Lily Allen - a crusader for musicians' rights????
The hard-pAArtying pop tart has started her own blog, It's Not Alright, tackling the topic of digital music piracy.
Lils has written letters to many of her musical comrades, requesting them to voice their opinions on music file sharing.
Check out the letter in its entirety:
The debate on digital music piracy is reaching a critical point as Peter Mandelson and the government move to legislation that will tackle unlawful file sharing. The industry’s had a say, the ISPs have had a say and some artists – through the Featured Artists Coalition have had a say. But I don’t agree with them. Do you?
I feel really strongly about file sharing. I see it having a damaging effect on British music – especially on emerging artists. Overall the internet’s had a great effect on music and been crucial in helping people like me break through. But file sharing is different to legal streaming or making some music available as promotion. File sharing eats away at opportunity for new artists: by cutting off income at the most crucial, cash-strapped point in their careers and by limiting A&R’s ability to sign new acts outside of the mainstream.
The ISPs have got their message out there: they don’t want to be the internet police. Fine. The industry has got its message out there: they’re losing money and they want it back. No surprises there.
And now some artists have got their message out there: that file sharing is fine when you’re a successful artist with sell out tours and a back catalogue ready to be sold to a new audience. That might be fine for them, but it’s not fine for the acts that haven’t made it big yet.
What I’d like is for artists that don’t think file sharing is fine to get their message out there too. I want to make it clear that file sharing is not alright. And I want the industry and the artists that have made it, to look at how we can help those artists that are still struggling to break through in the file sharing age.
So obviously I’m writing you because I’d really like your help. You don’t have to like my music –you don’t even have to like me. But if you think file sharing’s not alright and reckon we should be doing more to ensure emerging artists aren’t cut off, then I’d love a hand.
I want to get everyone together – the artists, record companies, ISPs and government –to properly talk about this. So we can stop bickering and try and come to a solution. We can even see if we can come up with some new ideas too.
I want us to talk about how we support emerging artists. If we support emerging artists, we can ask our fans to support them too. And if we’re not going after piracy, we need to talk about how we are going to support new talent.
The majority of British artists are against file sharing, because it will harm British music. We can talk about all the legal means of accessing music out there and even come up with new ways to access music, but ultimately we need to establish that we think file sharing is wrong.
If you agree with what I’m saying and want to be involved with voicing our opinion, then get in touch.
Lily
So far, James Blunt, Tim Oxley of Keane and Matt Bellamy of Muse have all written Lils back.
Thoughts????
[Image via WENN.]
I am all for file sharing..Sorry Lil
The pop up ads are annoying..make it stop!!!
trashy nobodies
looooooooove lily
;p
Ayebeclear.com Music will be free in 5 years. So artists will adapt or die. There is other money to be made and everyone can eat.
That sounds like it was written by a rep from BPI, not that dumb girl.
Do a Google search" "rapidshare.com" + "Lily Allen" and you can have all the dumb girl's music you could ever want. None for me, thanks.
She's so dumb.Anyone remember metallica,what used to be the best paid rock band in the world? No? Oh,well that's because they attacked napster and their own fans who in return stopped buying their cds,t-shirts,koozies,concert tickets and anything else pushed by those greedy bastards.
Lily is looking good enough to fist lately.
*tim rice-oxley. but this was surprisingly well written for someone you claim is inebriated all the time
Who does she think she is? She thinks she is all about "rights" and doing the right thing… and here she is smoking with performing?! what a cow! She wont be effected any… no shares her music, its rubbish! (",) x
Re: Big Black Dick –
mornin BBD
luv
me
zome
lilyyyy…wooohooooo
Downloading is never going to go away… sorry you're only making a few million a year. Sorry your greed has you acting like a fool. Maybe if you put on a decent show people would PAY to come and see you. The music business is NOT about putting out quality talent anymore, they are about exploiting shit to make a buck. The public got smart. FUCK YOU.
who the fuck cares?
these people are rich enough.
i refuse to make them any richer.
tell that lush to 'bugger-off'!
napster SAVED-MY-LIFE!
She's right.
Not cool.
Stealing from the blind.
Re: SheriMoonFireFly – Morning Moon!
Re: Big Black Dick – Morning oh big fisted one.
I use filesharing too.I use torrents.I download a lot of cd's with it.Mostly because I can't wait until I have enough money to buy the original album.If I don't like the downloaded stuff I delete it and if i liked it I buy the original album.It's better this way for me ’cause I can hear first if I like it or not before buying it.
Oh, boo-fuckity-hoo. So what if you can't have your solid-gold toilet? You make enough in a year to never have to work ever again.
Lily Allen, Metallica, the RIAA, and everyone else who is butthurt about filesharing can suck my dry, hypothetical balls.
I just use itunes! you should too!
How about dropping the price of CD's?
Oh, someone's a bit greedy.
True that, girl. Now let me get back to limewire…
File sharing is awesome for really poor bands who music is not in stores and can only be bought from the band and label's website. It makes it possible to get the music out there to anywhere in the world. You never here about really poor bands complaining about file sharing because it gets music out there no matter what. I think all these supposed "indie bands" that are nationally known and record company's, pop stars, because not only are people file sharing but the internet and file sharing have made it easy for for people to hear music outside of the shitty radio stations are playing, causing the market to thin. It truly is all about greed.
YOU CANNOT POLICE THE INTERNET( FULL STOP ) IT WAS CREATED FOR ANYTHING, EVER HEARD OFF ENCRYPTION, NO ONW WILL FUCK WITH THE NET, OR ILL SHOVE MY COMPUTER UP MY ISP ARSE, AIGHT
I'd be pretty peed off if i was in a band or summut working my ass off for years and not getting any money or recognition for it.
Re: SWEETPIECE! –
mornin SWEETZ
y didn't all the fire stations
from the western statez
come and help u guyz…
thatz not right..I don't get it../>?
I support file sharing. Sorry.
"MUSIC is not competition, MUSIC is not repetition
MUSIC is LOVE –
Love for the masses, Love for all classes"
I don't care about "helping" Lily Allen support her coke habit.
REAL artists make music WHETHER OR NOT they're making millions.
On top of that, they make PLENTY of $$$$ touring, promoting, selling merch, advertising, photo shoots, etc etc etc. They are NOT losing that much money because of file sharing. What an idiot.
stealing is stealing…..period
Re: SheriMoonFireFly – Oh they did! They were/ are tremendous! I think there was some political bullshit in the beginning about funds for the big scooper planes, but seriously, the firemen and women to be sure did their best.
I just can't get into the head of someone so insane as to want to witness that kind of destruction. So much hate!
what about the big cig in her hand!?
I'd bet Ms. Allen has shared plenty of files herself.
hate her such a twat
Fuck this bitch shes greedy all she wants is more money..Why the fuck doesnt she give away some free music like coldplay? or other artists allowing their fans to go to their site and download there complete album free. Your making money regardless obviously she and those that wrote back are having trouble in the industry and are unable to sell their music. GOD knows how many people have illegally downloaded Lady Gaga, Britney, Miley, Coldplay, and all these top artists music yet they still reach itunes top 10 and are selling out concert arenas world wide. FUCK YOU Lily and better luck next time.
Who the hell downloads lily allen music anyway?
Standing up to filesharing teenagers, while doing business with corrupt corporations like Ticketmaster. Wow, really bold!!
i LOVE Lilly Allen, but I'm sorry I don't think musicians need to make any more money. I don't think that you can own musical notes and words, aka songs just because you happened to string them together in a way that works. If an artist wants to make money then perform. I'm all for paying artists to perform and appear but I'm not going to pay them to record their voice. Downloader forever!
Re: ayebeclear –
Agreed~!!
Re: TheMurderScene –
"Downloading is never going to go away… sorry you're only making a few million a year. Sorry your greed has you acting like a fool. Maybe if you put on a decent show people would PAY to come and see you. The music business is NOT about putting out quality talent anymore, they are about exploiting shit to make a buck. The public got smart. FUCK YOU."
Preach!
boo f*cken hoo! b*tch needs to settle for a Merc instead of a Bentley.. my heart bleeds for you lils
while I understand her point of view I disagree. I remember when music was all about marketing, you bought an album and there was like only 3 good songs on it. Now I use filesharing to download music of groups I vaguely heard of, see if their stuff is good and if I like it I buy it, if I don't I delete it. There has been the case for me for a lot of bands and I don't listen a lot of streaming music because I just don't have the time to stay that long in front of my computer to listen a new album so I just put them in my Ipod and listen to it in the tube and eventually deletes it.
She also should listen to Pete Doherty who said that he'd be worried the day where he won't find his music on Internet because obviously it's the where nobody will care about you.
bitch, you have said that you spend excess amounts on money on stuff you don't need. You have enough money, you need to spend it more wisely. Why should poor people live life without any music to listen to?? You are cruel bitch. I swear I will never buy any of your albums or go to any of your shows or buy any of your merch. You can suck my left one you pig. Go do another line of coke you fat princess.
Lily Allen should shut !!!! up. You make millions of dollars, plus your songs SUCK…BITCHING ABOUT FILE SHARING. Yes your job, yes takes a bit away, but I have no patience for celebs/rocks stars/ etc. that make 20 mill in 5 months. SUCK IT>
I pay for my music. Maybe I'm stupid. I just wish it didn't cost just as much for the mp3 album as it does for the damn CD.
lily allen is a drunken spaz.
Imagine if contemporary artists in any other medium, aside from music, reacted this way to "their art" reaching the masses. For example, if you search Banksy on the internet you are inundated with examples of his work that are their on the web for you to see and enjoy. It makes his work more accesible and you would be more likely to purchase a print of his once you were familiar with his work. Why should musical artisits be treated differently? Why is it that the world needs to stop and cater to them? Perhaps the record companies just need to get up to speed…
Lily Allen is so talented. I hope she overcomes her problems.
I like Lilly and as an artist myself I see where she is coming from, the letter does cover the points well. To Major Labels it is stealing, To major Artists it is Promotion and to lesser know artists it creates an bigger obstacle to succeed. She is making herself vulnerable by jumping in to this hot topic without any real solutions herself although she is asking for ideas and for people to sit at a table and figure it out. Lilly is more of Stage and Studio Artist not much of entertainer on stage, although what makes these rappers any different. They just talk over beats the way I see it, that is why they have to be over the top and create interest around their persona.
Also I want to point out that.
Any Artist that is trying to sell Art is a business entity and they have to compete for customers same as if you open up a store and sell clothes or donuts.
There are plenty of crappy up and coming artist out there that assume it is the downloading that is hurting them.
Along with the technology of downloading came the ease of Recording, Marketing and Distributing for pennies.
A bigger problem is the fact that everyone wants to be a super star artist and it is easier to get involved and more competition.
I don't give a shiz, I'm gonna download whatever I want if I can.
Instead of trying to change something that never will, why doesn't your industry get their act together and find other ways to adapt to file sharing.
She so cute. i love her recklessness.