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The Lily Allen and Mandelson show
Lily Allen creates split among pop musicians as she backs Government plans to crack down on illegal file sharing
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson and 24-year-old Lily Allen might make an odd couple, but the singer has aligned herself with the Government and the big record labels on the need to crack down on illegal file-sharing. In doing so, Allen goes head to head with other musicians – represented by the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) - who believe the "heavy-handed" tactics of the authorities will turn fans away from pop music.
Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien, one of the leading lights of FAC, along with Blur drummer Dave Rowntree and Pink Floyd's Nick Mason, said of the Government proposal:"It's going to start a war which they'll never win."
Allen, however, is adamant that something needs to be done. On a new blog page, she wrote yesterday: "The FAC seems to be viewing the government's proposed legislation as an attack on freedom and liberty, but stealing's not really a human right, is it?
"What the government is proposing is the temporary suspension of the internet accounts of people that are repeatedly downloading loads of music through unlawful P2P file-sharing - as a last resort after they've been sent warnings.
"It doesn't mean the government's going to look at everything sent over the internet, as the FAC says - how would the government even do this? The proposal is to look at P2P sites - which are public anyway – to identify people who are acting unlawfully, so they can be asked, and then made, to stop. Not really an attack on civil liberties there."
Allen takes issue with the FAC over its statement that free music is important for the promotion of paid-for albums. "The crucial difference is that the artist is in control of these. With file-sharing they’re not. Artists should be in charge of how their music is distributed – not some file-sharer who decides they deserve everything for free, just because they know how to steal it."
Lord Mandelson entered the frame last month when he met lobbyists from the film and music industry concerned that the Digital Britain bill did not allow sufficient deterrents against piracy. The government then announced the proposal to suspend the broadband accounts of repeat offenders.
It then emerged that Mandelson had met the Hollywood mogul David Geffen at a Corfu holiday villa owned by the Rothschild banking dynasty, raising fears that he might been unduly influenced by the industry line on file-sharing. But Mandelson's advisers claimed the issue was never raised when the two men met.
One of the first artists to take Lily Allen's side publicly is James Blunt, who wrote to the Times yesterday saying: "I want to put my hand up in support of Lily Allen." Describing her as "our leader", Blunt said: "She's asking British musicians to galvanise over a serious crime: the death of a Great British industry - our music business."
James 'You're Beautiful' Blunt and Lily Allen, fighting side by side? It's almost as inconceivable as the Lily and Mandy show. ·
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Muppet, I have nothing to say to someone who thinks Lilly 'Spoiled Brat' Allen is superb, you clearly have no musical taste. I'd hate your CD collection. When I hear about the excesses of over-rich music brats, the thought of them starving becomes quite attractive. Real talent has never had anything to fear from their music being shared, the music industry is still awash with money, so cries they are suffering must be taken with a truckload of salt. This is all about having absolute control, not money or making a decent living. It's pure and simple spite by the rich, who want it all.
What's all the fuss about? Anyone that wants to release an album 'free to all' still can. The option to do so should remain with the band... as the girl says! Stop the downloads and you support the rights of musicians not the wrongs of the thieves.
Not correct Peter. I used to be an avid CD buyer, spending around 20-50 pounds a week on music. Now that I can get it all for free, in CD quality, I do. I don't even have the option of legally downloading because in the country where I live there is no iTunes or such like. Occasionally, if I want to encourage a new band who I like, or if there is a collectable CD that I want to own, I will buy one, but otherwise it's a lot easier and a lot cheaper to download it.
I agree that by making CDs cheaper you would encourage more people to buy them, and they are definitely often vastly overpriced, but to suggest that the filesharing trend isn't hurting the music industry is nonsense. Whether we should care about that is another matter... but let's not be hypocritical. We're stealing because we can, and because there's no comeback. And we will continue to do so, for as long as it remains possible.
And by the way, I saw Lily Allen live the other week and she was superb. A good singer and entertainer - highly recommended!
As if anyone would waste their time downloading this talentless popper's turgid, monotone renditions. The only thing about Allen that's big is her ego, as exhibited when slagging off Elton a while back. As for Blunt, what a twat; no sign that the British music industry is on its uppers, yet silly James thinks it's about to die from a bit of file sharing. What both these meagre talents fail to understand is that the people who share files wouldn't be buying the music anyway, so no money has been lost. They simply can't afford the sort of prices the record industry charges for its bits of plastic. While Allen can only dream of being megarich, she's probably benefitted more from file sharing than most, since she became known to her small fan base through MySpace, and people downloading her simple little ditties free. What irks people like Allen and Mandelson is poor people getting something for nothing, they really hate that. Ignoring the fact that the poor couldn't buy their overpriced product anyway. Make all CDs a quid and you'll solve 'illegal' file sharing in a stroke and the musical-rich-kids would still make a good living. Didn't people use to copy cassettes? Wasn't there a panic attack over that at the time by people with too much money?
I'm sure we'll have the "nickin' is right" mob posting here soon, citing their marvellous logic like "them blokes has made a load of money, so iss righ' for me to nick from 'em!" etc. Try that argument with Lord Sainsbury... and you'll end up in court for shoplifting. And the same should apply if you steal music.