Radiohead guitarist and FAC head honcho Ed O’Brien has spoken out about file sharing, claiming he agrees with controversial statements by Lily Allen.
File sharing has been around for as long as the internet. In fact, there’s a reasonable claim to be made that the growth of the internet was propelled by the desire of music fans for free recordings.
Changing the industry in unimaginable ways, file sharing has become a hot talking point recently. Growing tired of the Featured Artist Coalition’s stance on the issue, Lily Allen published a provocative new blog.
Earning cheers from a number of fellow songwriters including James Blunt and Patrick Wolf, Allen was invited to lunch by Muse singer Matt Bellamy who wanted to discuss the issue with government ministers.
However Lily Allen’s stance wasn’t welcomed by everyone. The Featured Artist Coalition issued a statement claiming that the singer had grossly simplified their position.
Since then, Ed O’Brien has given an interview to the BBC World Service claiming that he does actually agree with Lily Allen.
“What’s great at the moment is that artists, people like Lily Allen are saying, ‘You know what, there are consequences to file-sharing’, and that’s the first step in engaging the file-sharers,” he said.
Lily Allen had suggested that musicians such as Ed O’Brien had decided to take a lax attitude to file sharing as it doesn’t affect them financially.
“I completely agree with Lily Allen,” O’Brien said. “We’re (Radiohead) certainly not going to suffer. A lot of people have downloaded our music for free, but ultimately we don’t suffer as much as a small band.”
However O’Brien went on to state that the government’s proposal to cut off the internet connections of those who file share is wrong.
“At the moment the industry is saying you get them to change their behaviour by threatening them,” he said.
“We don’t think this is realistic. Hopefully we can educate them (music fans) and say, ‘Listen, if you want a great vibrant music scene and your favourite bands to be able to carry on doing it, you have a responsibility to pay for some of the work that they’ve produced’.”
“Record companies have to license out the recordings a lot more. You want to make it completely user-friendly for somebody to be able to download something. Make it cheaper as well. Basically have more websites out there selling people’s work.”
