September 28, 2009 by Jenny Sanderson
As arguably the first British musician to properly harness the power of social networking to promote herself and her music, Lilly Allen’s strident stance against file-sharing might seem like a counter-intuitive point. However, the sometimes controversial singer is continuing her battle against those that would seek to download her, or anyone else’s, music for free with a brand new blog, idontwanttosavetheworld.blogspot.com which she uses to post messages of support for her cause from other musicians. Supporters include James Blunt, Gary Barlow and Natasha Khan (Bat for Lashes).
Critics of Allen have pointed out that her main argument, that file sharing makes it harder for emerging artists, might not hold water. Their point is that file sharing has clearly allowed unprecedented access to new music by making it readily available to people that, whilst they might be interested in a new band, would not have taken the risk of parting with £10-15 for an album… It’s compelling logic. There’s also the argument that these album downloads will encourage more people to go to live concerts, which potentially make more money for artists than album sales.
Whilst it is true that established stars like Lilly, who have no problem packing out stadiums as it is may miss out on album sales, she may have trouble convincing the world to pity her and the rest of the millionaires on her blog.
Related posts:
