Pirate Tax Funds Pirate Album
Written by Ernesto on June 13, 2008For every blank CDr bought, a few cents “pirate tax” are added to compensate artists for loss of revenue when people share their albums. However, not every artist agrees that sharing is wrong so as a statement, the Swedish artist Mr.Suitcase has used his “pirate tax” income to make a pirate album.
Mr.Suitcase’s latest album “Frauds” is something in between a remix and a mash-up, built out of other people’s music, and fully funded by the pirate tax refund he received for his first album.
It all began last year when, having released his album “Guidelines For An Emerging Century”, Mr.Suitcase received a payment from Stim, the Swedish Performing Rights Society. Included in it was a refund from the tax that is put on all recordable media in Sweden. Whenever CDRs, mp3-players or similar items are sold, an extra fee of 0,04 crowns/megabyte is added and later paid back to the artists.
“First, I got a bit put off by receiving the money because to me, that kind of arbitrary hand-out of alms is a ridiculous system,” Mr.Suitcase said. “Then I thought, why not see it as an opportunity and earmark the money for something creative. And since the money came from piracy, I had to use it for more piracy, right?”
With the money, Mr.Suitcase bought old used effect boxes and began experimenting. Without knowing where it would take him, he started sending fragments and loops from other people’s songs through the effects.
“I’ve always been fascinated by cut-and-paste aesthetics. I grew up with artists like The Future Sound of London and Saint Etienne who layered samples and combined the bits and pieces to create something brand new, something that became more than just the sum of the elements.”
He says the project “got completely out of control” when friends started to drop by the studio to record new instruments and vocals over the samples. In the end, he had an album’s worth of new songs, although they all were rooted in someone else’s work.
“As the project grew, I lost count of how many original songs that were used in it. Nearly a hundred, I’d guess. It’s very diverse, from Prince to The Rice Twins, from Ashanti to Zongamin. In the end, I realized it wasn’t a mixtape or mash-up but it wasn’t an album either. I decided the tracks were all frauds, called it a wrap and posted it on The Pirate Bay.”
Mr.Suitcase thinks artists should be more relaxed about non-commercial use of their work. Since the world went digital, he feels the availability is a natural consequence that should be embraced rather than hopelessly opposed.
“The way Internet works, there’s no reason to argue for or against file sharing. We can just conclude here and now that file sharing ‘is’. For me, I’m very attached to the idea that the top-down structure of producers and consumers has turned into a blur, and that anything created isn’t only there to be experienced but can also be a building-block for new creations. It’s fantastic! I was absolutely thrilled when techno producer The Field used one of my recordings for his brilliant track ‘Istedgade’.”
“To me, ‘Frauds’ is a statement. There’s so much negativity in the debate. ‘File sharing means artists can’t…’, ‘File sharing means nobody will ever…’ I think it’s the opposite, I think the beautiful aspect of the digital era is that anything recorded can be remixed, tweaked and modified.”
Mr.Suitcase’s album “Frauds” can be downloaded via BitTorrent at mrsuitcase.se.
Previously: Canada Proposes Draconian Anti-Piracy Law
Next: MediaDefender Goes Forward with P2P Marketing
43 Responses
Pages: [1] 2 » Show All
Nothing more interesting to write about no??
We could say the same to you MJMC, why bother commenting if you have nothing interesting to say??
Who burns CDs these days neway? I plug my USB drive full of PIRATED music straight into the head unit! Kiss my azz suckers!
cool news, good to see another artist highlighting serious problems with government approaches to piracy, and using the situation to produce something positive for fans; for both customers and pirates.
..HE BOTHERS BECAUSE HE’S A DOFUS!
Btw, bravo Mr.Suitcase!
Hmmm… money going to artists from anti-piracy schemes? This is definitely new.
For every £1 he got, the PRS kept £10.
^ Sorry, STIM (PRS in the UK). Where’s the comment editing? I want a TF account :(
hooray for mr suitcase.
thats awesome.
The problem with basing it on money is that it presumes that money for the artist is the most important part of culture, as some way of “making money” that must be preserved. Of course, this is nonsense, because what people do with culture is more important than a money-incentive for creativity, and such an incentive was never necessary in the first place.
great music too!
very interesting concept, definitely going to give it a download/listen.
Nice to see musicians/artists thinking this way but i think its still inviting trouble from arseholes like Prince… i mean look at his history, he has pulled all he can of his stuff from you tube, even went as far as to issue a DMCA on youtube for the bottleged copy that someone made while he sang another artist’s (radiohead) song: creep
Not to mention he has asked/insisted that many guitar tab sites take out tablature and tutorials for his songs… wouldnt surprise me in the least if he acts like an arsehole and goes after Mr.Suitcase for using a “portion” of his music.
Cheers!
http://www.ezee.se/ Copyright is CopyWRONG
I love Mr. Suitcase =D.
Mr. Suitcase has such a healthy and optimistic view of piracy. That story was really quite inspiring.
“I think it’s the opposite, I think the beautiful aspect of the digital era is that anything recorded can be remixed, tweaked and modified.”
That’s a great quote! More power to you, Mr. Suitcase! You’re welcome to my pirate tax any day… if only the government was as nice as you when it came to other taxes! :-)
First: we have this ripp off in germany for quite some time .. It paid some idiot in holland ( i think ) for a smurf song a castle, no joke. Probably this is the case or whatever why we in germany have so many idiots singing while we are the biggest state in europe 8 with > 80 Mill people.
Apart from that : please change the display of comments to last first.. apart from not getting i´m first comments it is much more interesting
so a new cassetteboy ?
I only buy dvds if a good brand but dirt cheap. I’m not paying extra for those scabs, which is what schoolkids called those who go around trying to bludge money off everyone. Only these bloodsuckers actually do it.
If I’m paying “pirate tax” anyway, then burning disks of copyrighted works must be legal, since you can’t legally tax something illegal. This sounds like another good defense.
what is http://www.ezee.se/ and why is it always appearing in posts here?
Nice One :) Keep up the good work!
Are we related?
Huge props to Mr.Suitcase - looking forward to hearing his stuff (downloading as I type).
P.S. @#1 ‘MJMC’: You have even less of interest to write about, you unamusing, lackwitted twat.
No offence…
Always great coverage. Love coming to your blog.
—-
http://googlesearchgame.com
@20 i like what you’re saying. if i am paying a pirate tax on burnable media and then use it to burn a home movie or home slideshow or nin/radiohead/mr. suitcase/free music album shouldn’t i be entitled to a rebate of some kind.
Pages: [1] 2 » Show All
Responses are closed
All remaining responses will continue to be archived. Use the TorrentFreak forums if you want to discuss something.