So this week, a court in the US ruled in favour of a number of large record labels and ordered Limewire to cease providing their software and take down the Gnutella server which has for over a decade been one of the most popular methods for people wishing to illegally file share music.
Now I'm not going to ever pretend that at some point somewhere in the past, many years ago I didn't use Limewire, because I hold my hands up, I did. But the dawn of iTunes along with things like Pandora, last.fm and Spotify gsve the consumer a legal means of listening to music and then purchasing it...if they liked what they heard. It's the route I took.
Only in the past couple of years have I become so acutely aware of how badly illegal file sharing hurts independent artists in fact I have a number of friends who are musicians and the thought of people stealing from them and preventing them earning a living from their talent really sickens me.
Let's also be very clear, just because an artist is signed to a major record label, it doesn't mean they earn a huge amount of money from each record...if you don't believe me, go and have a search online for recording contracts and the percentages artists receive for Recording Royalties and Mechanical Royalties and the Deductions records labels make.
So in my view, Limewire's demise is a truly great day for music but I'm not naive enough to believe that people won't find another way to share music, I just hope it gets the same injunction slapped upon it, the future of music and talented artists depends upon it.
Sunday 31 October 2010
Sunday 17 October 2010
Right place, right time...
So recently I've been out to quite a few smallish gigs after a little break from the musical adventures. The first of which was an invite only industry-showcase event at the Regal Rooms in Hammersmith about 10 days ago. The premis of the event was 4 or 5 acts all playing just 3 songs. I went along to see the brilliant Alex Berger play and to do a "little bit of business" and I arrived too late to see the first act.
But I did walk in right in the middle of the second act who quite literally slammed me face first to the floor. See some of these showcase events can at times be pretty shabby if they're not organised very well and the quality can be sometimes somewhat lacking, not in this case.
If you scroll through to about 42 minutes, you'll see what I walked in on. The guy on stage in question is Rich Thomas of Brother & Bones a band who I can't actually tell you much about because there just isn't a lot available...except they're based in the South West of England (Cornwall area) and the eponomous debut album was released back in June this year.
Watch live video from The Regal Room Live on Justin.tv
If you've watched the video then right now I'm hoping you're going...WOW, what an incredible voice, if you're not then there's something majorly wrong with you.
Anyways, after the set I had to go and buy a CD so made a beeline for Rich. We chatted for a brief moment, I bought the CD and on the way home in the car I put it on. I had just enough time to listen to the whole thing and was a little confused, I guess it wasn't quite what I expected, although I don't know how I decided that based on having listened to an acoustic set of 3 songs, still...I popped it straight on my iPod the next morning and gave it a few more blasts and from a cautiously confused start, I eventually got it.
What the album is, is a big, huge, bold, loud and beautifully crafted and produced mix of mainstream anthemic rock songs with influences and styling from a number of other genres all centred around strong, soulful, soaring and intensely brilliant vocals. From No Soul right through to Stand Alone, you can't find a bad song amongst them and I defy you to not be drawn into even the smallest amount of foot-tapping or head-shaking. The album finishes with the beautifully laid back The Sun Must Always Go Down which I guess was the best connection between the three live songs I saw Rich perform and the rest of the album.
At the moment, you can't buy the album online, I'm sure it won't be too long before you can and I'll also be brave enough to stick my neck out a bit and say that Rich and the band could potentially be big...very, very big such is the quality. You heard it here, maybe not first, but you heard it here.
But I did walk in right in the middle of the second act who quite literally slammed me face first to the floor. See some of these showcase events can at times be pretty shabby if they're not organised very well and the quality can be sometimes somewhat lacking, not in this case.
If you scroll through to about 42 minutes, you'll see what I walked in on. The guy on stage in question is Rich Thomas of Brother & Bones a band who I can't actually tell you much about because there just isn't a lot available...except they're based in the South West of England (Cornwall area) and the eponomous debut album was released back in June this year.
Watch live video from The Regal Room Live on Justin.tv
If you've watched the video then right now I'm hoping you're going...WOW, what an incredible voice, if you're not then there's something majorly wrong with you.
Anyways, after the set I had to go and buy a CD so made a beeline for Rich. We chatted for a brief moment, I bought the CD and on the way home in the car I put it on. I had just enough time to listen to the whole thing and was a little confused, I guess it wasn't quite what I expected, although I don't know how I decided that based on having listened to an acoustic set of 3 songs, still...I popped it straight on my iPod the next morning and gave it a few more blasts and from a cautiously confused start, I eventually got it.
What the album is, is a big, huge, bold, loud and beautifully crafted and produced mix of mainstream anthemic rock songs with influences and styling from a number of other genres all centred around strong, soulful, soaring and intensely brilliant vocals. From No Soul right through to Stand Alone, you can't find a bad song amongst them and I defy you to not be drawn into even the smallest amount of foot-tapping or head-shaking. The album finishes with the beautifully laid back The Sun Must Always Go Down which I guess was the best connection between the three live songs I saw Rich perform and the rest of the album.
At the moment, you can't buy the album online, I'm sure it won't be too long before you can and I'll also be brave enough to stick my neck out a bit and say that Rich and the band could potentially be big...very, very big such is the quality. You heard it here, maybe not first, but you heard it here.
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