Swedish Artists Want to Legalize Filesharing
Written by Ernesto on April 01, 2008A recent survey among Swedish musicians has found that 38% of the artists want filesharing to be be legalized. The artists argue that sharing their files on p2p-networks could promote their work, especially in the early stages of their career.
There is a difference in age when it comes to the outcome of the survey, which was conducted by Sydsvenskan. Older artists who have been around for some years, long before filesharing even existed, tend to be more critical, saying they’ve lost 80% of their sales with no increase in revenue from another sources.
Younger artists that broke through in the era of filesharing are more positive and see it as something that actually helps their career. One of the artists said: “Where I am now, filesharing is positive and makes good PR. If I were to get bigger, I believe it would affect me negatively.”
There are older artists who think that filesharing could benefit them, one of them noted: “You can look upon filesharing as a way of promotion, a way of putting new stuff out there.”
One of the Swedish artists who definitely profited from file-sharing is the Swedish glam rock band “Lamont”. The band was featured on on The Pirate Bay frontpage last year. Not without success, over 100,000 people downloaded their album in less than 24 hours, numbers that other artists can only dream of.
At the time Brokep told TorrentFreak that they love to support bands who are willing to share their music using BitTorrent. And indeed, a little later The Pirate Bay supported Familjen, which resulted in a Grammy win for the band.
Perhaps these might be two extreme examples, but there is ample evidence that most artists actually profit from filesharing, even without The Pirate Bay.
The survey further found, and this might also come as a shock to the record labels, that a majority of the artists, 59%, admit to having downloaded copyrighted music themselves.
Although nearly half of the respondents had a favorable opinion towards filesharing, 58% of the artists still think that that sharing copyrighted material should be illegal.
One of the artists was rooting for a pirate crackdown, as he said: “My wish is that the punishment will be harder and that it will become easier to catch filesharers. I think all musicians should go to parliament and grab those politicians.”
The survey further showed that a majority of the participants in the survey are angry at the record companies. One of the musicians said: “For 50 years, the sole purpose of record companies has been trying to grab as much money away from the artists as possible. Now, suddenly they’ve become some kind of interest group for the artists and that’s not true.”
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33 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
The profit that they are loosing is now going to indy artists..
The money keeps on rolling, but not anymore in the direction of already-rich musicians and record companies.
38% is less than 58% so the title should be swedish artists DON’T want to legalise filesharing
No secret that the companies have been screwing the artists for years… as is written in the articles (more like rants) at http://www.ezee.se (note, the .se at the end.., thats a Swedish domain even though everything is in English)
It’s called FREE PUBLICITY and the world will understand that piracy can return more than a headache!
Even tho i download movies and music, i allways buy the albums and DVDs that i like and i still go to the cinema!
If i had resources and contacts i would build myself a huge piracy cooperationto fight illegal porn (something that tons of pirates would prefer to see disappear, specially myself), a free publicity for independent movies (this is by far the best use for pircay and movies) REAL world statitics about new album releases and movies (because the biggest ammount of viewers are pirates but this would be a tricky thing to do), erease the fake torrents, including the ones that contain virus and so on…
I could keep on going with all the bbenefits that piracy can give but i dont have the time neither the money for it but i hope that someone that can do, read this and makes it happen. Piracy isnt dying, its just getting stronger and more organized, the last step depends on people that sees what i see.
@me:
… and obviously there are a lot of hypocrites since 59% admitted to having shared copyrighted material. 59% > 58%.
Stop hypocrisy and legalize non profit file sharing!
Time to change the basic’s….
Let everybody get money!
http://www.hack5.blogspot.com
Thanks…
Ahhhh Ano’s a scammer fuckin faggot
59%, admit to having downloaded copyrighted music? WOW damn, so why arent they they ones getting sued by the mpaa/riaa?!??!
So, it just further proves one’s position on the unauthorised distribution of copywritten works be based entirely on what one personally stands to gain.
What’s in it for me, Jack?
Not realy shocking, think most swedes knew it was this way kinda ;) everyone downloads in sweden. Police, corperations (private use ofc), artists, prime ministers etc..
Its out there, so go grab it! its like a penny on the street, if you want it its yours! and if you want to sprinkle pennys all over you can, because their your pennys that you worked for and got darnit!
A product is the property of the consumer when he has bought it:
Media companies are the ONLY ones left in the world who believe they should control what the consumer does with his product he bought, its illigal in some countries to do that tbh but thanks to: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY! Corperations are still allowed to control the consumers. When products are sold, intellectual property should not apply, you cannot sell things and own them at the same time after they have been sold.
Some argue record labels dont sell the intellectual property (the songs/music/movie) to consumers, but the plastic disc and the pictures. well thats illigal aswell to sell something and give away another.. Thats also missleading consumers, again a bad thing.
If they want intellectual property to exist, they cant sell intellectual property and still retain ownership and full control over it!
If i buy a banana from chequita or whatever, and leave it on a road and someone picks it up and eats it, will chequita sue the one who left it on the road or the one who ate it for lost sales? Chequita bananas wouldnt *bleeeeebidybleepbleep*!!!!
not sure i quite agree with the banana rant there…
[quote]not sure i quite agree with the banana rant there…[/quote]
I do.
BAH!!!
Greedy artists!!!
They sit in a studio for six or seven weeks, get paid up the wazzoo, then expect even MORE money ?!?
Who do you think does all the work of MAKING PEOPLE CARE?!?
People don’t automatically LIKE things - you have to script scandals, spam Yahoo! + AOL, overdose radio airwaves - its not easy!
producers and DIRECTORS are the ones who deserve the credit - years after an artist records a song, its the producers, directors, and distributors who are out there in the field defending that music from copyright infringement!!!
So have a heart; give the artist his six weeks pay, and move on; give the rest of your money to the people who really matter: record executives; they always need more money - sometimes even everything else in the world isn’t enough to keep them from getting bored.
Speaking of which, I was watching the news the other day:
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both vehemently swore they would do an emergency pull-out of Iraq as soon as they took office;
McCain showed off the correspondence-diploma he just got in economics, but bowed out of the race saying “I just love everybody so much - I could never be comfortable knowing the power to invade a country lay within my hands!”
Ron Paul, blipping the radar, has been discovered hosting a Roast Beef cooking show on the Food Network.
“Swedish Artists Want to Legalize Filesharing”
Do you mean “don’t want to”? The majority don’t.
[quote comment="325638"][quote]not sure i quite agree with the banana rant there…[/quote]
I do.[/quote]
Ditto.
[quote comment="325889"][/quote]
Great now how bout US and UK artists
[quote comment="325268"]38% is less than 58% so the title should be swedish artists DON’T want to legalise filesharing[/quote]
[quote comment="325685"]“Swedish Artists Want to Legalize Filesharing”
Do you mean “don’t want to”? The majority don’t.[/quote]
No where does it say “MOST” artists, just ‘artists’ meaning more then one.
I’m just shocked at the fact that more then half admit to downloading copyrighted material.
[quote comment="326021"][quote comment="325268"]38% is less than 58% so the title should be swedish artists DON’T want to legalise filesharing[/quote]
[quote comment="325685"]“Swedish Artists Want to Legalize Filesharing”
Do you mean “don’t want to”? The majority don’t.[/quote]
No where does it say “MOST” artists, just ‘artists’ meaning more then one.
I’m just shocked at the fact that more then half admit to downloading copyrighted material.[/quote]
why? its just downloading who cares. so its illegal, noone cares and they shouldnt.
I am not at all surprise at 59% of the artist downloading from internet.And if the sons and daughters of the members of the RIAA where to be honest about it too, we would see that many of them also download music.Heck even the sons of politicians do it.
Of course the RIAA will persue only the ones that can not afford to deffend themselves financially, just like the predator persuing it’s prey not confronting a real enemy just easy prey.
GREED MOTIVATES THEM no concern for anything else.
Love You Guys !!! Or NOT.
THIS IS WAY TOO COOL!
http://pluking.blogspot.com
[quote]No where does it say “MOST” artists, just ‘artists’ meaning more then one.
[/quote]
They say “swedish artists” like it’s the artists as a whole, or majority.
If they wanted to say that it was just a few, they should have said “some swedish artists”.
[quote comment="327562"][quote]No where does it say “MOST” artists, just ‘artists’ meaning more then one.
[/quote]
They say “Swedish artists” like it’s the artists as a whole, or majority.
If they wanted to say that it was just a few, they should have said “some Swedish artists”.[/quote]
But saying “some Sweedish artists” makes for a clumsy sounding headline. Headlines gotta conserve space, so they don’t go into that much detail. The headline “Sweedish artists” lets you know that some group of Swedish artists of considerable size and influence support filesharing, and then you are supposed to read the article to find out how much.
It seems that many musos are so dumb they think music sharing should be banned even though it’s ok to download it, or at least for them. Self-centred and short-sighted?
Wow. I felt like I was reading an article by the Iraqi Information Minister.
If only 38% support it, than the story is that the majority of Swedish artists do NOT want to legalize filesharing. I suspect that artists in other countries are even less happy with it.
Also, %59 may have downloaded in the past. That does not mean that they still do it. Many people used Napster, back in the old days, but have since moved on to iTunes or something else.
Mork Mork Mork.
I am a debut artist who’s just recorded one of the most expensive debut albums in recent history.
Like the artists mentioned in this article, we have just released my debut album as a FREE HQ Mp3 download.
It was a tough decision for us to make because of the vast amounts spent on the album. We had two of the biggest record producers in the world work on it…. at Peter Gabriel’s Realworld studio and at Abbey Road studio in london.
Despite all that, we recognise the massive potential the internet and free albums in particular offers. We launched last friday and have already had 1000’s of DL’s all over the world.
We are hoping that people like the album enough to come to a show, which is where hopefully my bread and butter will come from.
Come over and download for free.. it takes 2 minutes to DL because we have a dedicated server.
http://www.jackrubinacci.com
Thanks
Jack
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