The Costanza

Lily Allen, who formerly believed music piracy was bad, has changed her mind stating she “doesn’t care” if someone burns her albums.

In September, Allen wrote a blog on Myspace critisising bands such as Radiohead and Pink Floyd for their view that file sharing is okay.

But now it appears, in a radio interview Allen has had a change of mind and heart and says “If someone comes up with a burnt copy of my CD and offers it to you for £4, I haven’t a problem with that as long as the person buying it places some kind of value on my music.”

Tory.

“Politicians and music companies need to wake up to the changing nature of music consumption and embrace the demand for new business models that offer lower prices and easier access to music.”

This article by the Daily Mail in the UK says a study published by think-tank Demos, found those who admit to file sharing spent more money on singles and albums than people who claim never to have illegally downloaded music for free.
A government in the UK plans to disconnect illegal downloaders from the internet in a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ rule.
Some artists such as James Blunt and Lily Allen support these plans but Shakira claims she feels closer to fans when they illegally obtain her music.
Of course, the survey also reveals that people would download less music illegally if it was cheaper to buy music. In fact, the legal music companies would DOUBLE their custom if they lowered their prices.

Tory.

Lily Allen has critisised file sharers and some artists in her latest Myspace blog entry saying “music piracy is having a dangerous effect on British music”.

She says bands who sell out arenas such as Pink Floyd and Radiohead are not the ones feeling the effects of piracy but for new acts, music piracy and file sharing make it hard for new acts to emerge.

Allen says while old-school artists are driving Ferraris the new, emerging artists are still trying to pay off record company debts.

She recommends record companies get smart about new technology and make the internet more user friendly for kids to download music legally instead of having to steal parents credit cards or download music illegally.

Tory.

It seems like a lot of what I find on the internet is older stuff but always very interesting. This is a piece from BBC News in the year 2005.

Alex Kapranos of the band Franz Ferdinand believes that the government needs to have a bigger role in Scottish music.

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The recession is hitting the music industry hard. This video is fantastic because it says everything that I’ve been saying in my last few blogs.

Even in a recession people will pay to see a concert. $40 American to see British reggae group UB40. The concert sold out. The band believes that the way to make a living is to perform live. No longer can you become a billionare from selling millions of records.
Record sales are down even if concert sales are up. A lot of people choose to legally download their music as opposed to buying CDs because it is cheaper to download music.

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Over the last few years we have been made to believe the lie that our music piracy is making musicians poor and corrupting the world. But on the 18th of June, just 4 days ago, it was announced that in fact our music piracy is benefitting the world!

Basically, this article from the UK says that some guys from some well thought of US universities are publishing a paper which asserts the benefits of internet piracy.
In my last blog I covered a few of the many reasons why people would want to pirate music. Obviously there are a lot more reasons, both good and bad.

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In November 2002, this was posted on the BBC website. The basic message in this article is that Microsoft believe they will never be able to stop music piracy.
I find this very interesting because I had always heard that one day, some government department or the police would come into people’s houses, seize their computer and arrest them for the hundreds of music files they have on there.

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“Remember Jerry, it’s not a lie if you believe it” – George Costanza.

I have decided to start every blog with a quote from either Mr Costanza, a politician/about politics or a musician/about music. This is just my way of personalising my blog and maybe making the things I talk about a little more bearable.

What my blog will be about will be rather dry and although interesting, probably won’t be the most exciting thing everyone has ever read.
It turns out our choices are as I thought. Government, politics or the economy.

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The Costanza is my blog for school. The name of the blog and the ‘catchphrase’ are incorporating my favourite Seinfeld character (George Costanza) aswell as the general idea of what my blog will be about.
I’m told I have the mannerisms of Mr Costanza at times so adding that to my blog seemed important.
Our school blogs have to be on a certain topic chosen by our tutors. The topics are something along the lines of business, economics, politics etc but we’ve been told that we can fit any topic of our choice into that topic. Confused? Yea, so was I.

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