Listened with interest last night to the inaugural John Peel lecture delivered by Pete Townshend of The Who (Watch The John Peel Lecture in full). Townshend examined the current state of music media and asked the question: Can John Peelism survive the Internet? In an age of free downloads and a disposable attitude to music, can creative people earn a living, and without radio how can the "unpolished" music that John Peel championed find an audience?
Townshend was very passionate on the subject of copyright, arguing strontgly against unauthorised file-sharing, saying the internet was "destroying copyright as we know it".
He also said that people who downloaded his music without paying for it "may as well come and steal my son's bike while they're at it". You wouldn't break into his house and take the bike, so why steal the earnings that would pay for that bike.
Making the point that in all other walks of life, people are paid for work - If someone "pretends that something I have created should be available to them free... I wonder what has gone wrong with human morality and social justice", he said.
Obviously Townshend himself is far from being a struggling musician and he acknowledged this but pointed out that the position for new musicians is far from rosy. There is also a creative dilemma whereby "A creative person would prefer their music to be stolen and enjoyed than ignored. This is the dilemma for every creative soul: he or she would prefer to starve and be heard than to eat well and be ignored."
A lot of people would perhaps regard downloading music for free as not legal but, you know, essentially ok and it was interesting to hear a musician's perspective on this. Well worth a listen if you have the time.
- Fiona
