Travis Defends Fan from IFPI Threats
Written by enigmax on July 31, 2008Here is a story of a blogger doing his best to help the band Travis reach its fans (at the band’s request), and the IFPI subsequently steaming in thinking it knows best and getting it wrong twice over. We look at what happened and speak to Travis themselves to get their opinion on file-sharing.
Kevin runs SoMuchSilence.com, a 3-year-old indie music blog based in Phoenix, Arizona, that serves to promote indie rock and hip-hop, both nationally and locally.
Back in May, Kevin saw that the successful band, Travis, were busy completing their new album “Ode to J.Smith“. Kevin managed to acquire a copy of a track from the album, and since Fran Healy from the band had been encouraging people to share the song, he put a link to the track up on the site.
Then, in an email dated July 1st 2008, Kevin got quite a surprise. He told TorrentFreak that he received a notice from the IFPI indicating that he had posted an ‘infringing file’ and was shocked since Travis had encouraged people to share the track: “It was my first official cease and desist, so I just removed the file and was going to let it go. The IFPI also contacted my server host, who in turn sent me a notice about taking down the file.”
Apart from the fact that Healy already gave his permission for people to share the track, the IFPI still didn’t manage to get the takedown request done properly, as they completely neglected to mention Travis in the email, but referenced the band Hercules and Love Affair instead. The letter/email they claimed to have sent earlier was never received.
Kevin told us he decided to contact Travis directly, and Fran Healy himself responded in super-quick time, giving his express permission for Kevin to upload the song:
I guess until they get the correct song you can keep on posting it. You definitely have my blessing as one of the 4 holders of the copyrights to that specific recording. I actually think this is bogus. Anyways thanks for posting that on your site. It was lovely to see it out there doing the rounds. We didn’t take it to radio so you’re helping with the pollination of the nation.
After getting this positive message from Fran, the IFPI responded, back-tracking on their earlier mail. They explained that since there is such a lot of infringing content online, there will be instances where they make incorrect accusations. They further said they were unaware that the band had agreed to the sharing of this track but now that the position had been clarified, Kevin was free to upload the track.
Kevin told us he felt vindicated after the IFPI admitted, sort of, that it was wrong of them to accuse him the way they did, but it would’ve been nicer if they had apologized instead of simply redirecting the blame. Kevin also talked to us about the obvious gap between the different entities involved in the music business and the benefit of talking to the band direct: “For him [Fran Healy] to reply directly and cut out the middle man in this matter meant a lot to me. I was already a huge fan of Travis and this really cemented that bond. I posted the song to help the band and promote its music and, hopefully, encourage sales, and I think it’s clear Travis realizes that. It’s too bad others don’t.”
It’s wonderful that Travis took the time to respond to Kevin, so TorrentFreak took the opportunity to ask the band a question too: What is the position of the band in relation to both the online distribution of the song, and file-sharing in general. Here is what Fran Healy had to say:
Thanks for getting in touch. My view is very simple. But it’s implications are complex. With a view to music, the internet is like radio. The only major difference is that, at the moment, I don’t get a PRS payment everytime my song is listened to.
The problem is, the business is trying to fit old rules on a new model. Like trying to fit the square peg in the round hole. I think someone has to sit down and re-write the rules for the new model. Maybe the PRS rules with stations were put in place when radio was very small and easy to control. The Internet is giant so is hard to govern. Maybe the way ahead would be to look at the big companies like YouTube and MySpace and say, for instance, 2 million people watch a video for a song then they have also been exposed to the advertising that generates profit for YouTube. Maybe PRS could collect money attributed to this in the same way as they do with commercial radio.
I think bands should be paid for broadcast of their material because this goes directly to the band through publishing. Bands have never profited directly from the sale of their records as they are always paying off debts to do with making the record, videos, artwork and TV advertising. PRS has always been the artists friend. Bands make money from publishing, touring and merch. If the record does well, the rewards are considerable, but more often than not records do ‘alright’ and so PRS is what comes in to keep the wolves from the door.
Maybe a way to deal with the situation would be to not go for the guy streaming the content but go for the service provider. If you took away free entertainment from the menu, they’d lose 99% of their business. If I was a gambling man I’d wager Internet is taking over from TV and will probably replace it by 2040.
As far as illegal filesharing goes. There are people who will buy albums and people who will record them off friends. If you took away the Internet this would still happen so I don’t lose any sleep. Goodnight.
You can hear the song that created all the fuss on MySpace , and learn more about the band on their site. Congratulations to the band on some great music and for treating their fans with respect, and thanks to Kevin and good luck with SoMuchSilence.
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45 Responses
its always great to see bands and artists that have the right idea. filesharing is useful to these bands, but they do still deserve to be paid and his idea about prs on youtube and myspace seems very a good idea
A great band from Glasgow with some great views!
Well Done Lads.
Allan from Newton Mearns ;)
Good article.
IFPI and the like are just big bullies.
also the uk situation is v bad.
what can we do?
Indiana Gregg, the bitch, can learn something from this awesome band.
Rock on!
Who the fuck is Travis?
IFPI = OWNED… Badly…
At least they are able to see that they make wrong accusations, but they are not able to send their right ones to the right persons, nor check if that band is actually on their “to protect” list, no they just want to (illegally) make cash out of other people’s works… Assholes…
Since there is no penalty for making false infringement claims, the recording industry will continue its scorched-earth tactics.
If they make ten false infringement claims for every one valid claim, that’s just fine for them. Mission accomplished.
Who the fuck is Travis?
Travis are a damn good band from the UK – Some songs which have been huge over here are: -
Why Does It Always Rain On Me? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwh3FmpZ7kg
Sing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1f2M5G9KG8
Turn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to8_8z9uu5A
Side
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkW_SR7SgiE
and many many others well worth checking out.
I had no idea who Travis is, but I’m definitely checking them out now, because they have a kickass attitude towards music sharing.
You rock.
Check out their compilation Singles or get the album The Man Who if you’re interested. Just a bit of “warning”: they’re a bit on the softer rock side of Britpop, but they definitely do it well if you can dig that.
Like “Kill ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out” said
It’s terrible that they’re allowed to act like email spammers and effectively con artists. For each thousand letters and allegations they throw around they have the chance to scare those who may or may not be guilty.
It’s unexceptable that they get away with using methods that seem criminal themselves.
“Who the fuck is Travis?”
I don’t know, but I intend to find out :)
@5 ruinyourlife
“Who the fuck is Travis?”
Obviously a progressive-thinking band who “gets it”. Cheers to them and I also, like #11, intend to find out. Musicians like this need to be supported. ;)
And as for scum like IFPI?
Every day, in every way, they become less and less relevant. Die slowly IFPI. Die painfully. But please do die. Maybe then you all will have to actually work for a living instead of leeching off the backs of musicians and consumers.
I have a simple discussion board that does not require registration at
http://www.28chan.org/fs/
And I think that although this is one instance of something good and progressive, that it still needs to be bigger.
Somehow encourage these kind of works by making derivative works. You know, like turning them into anti-RIAA songs by replacing the lyrics or something like that.
@14
Why not discuss here http://companynewsnetwork.com ? They do not require registration either.
I think a great tribute to Travis’ talent and the respect they have for their fans by increasing their “friend” count on Myspace. Currently they have over 40,000. Let’s show our support for their progressive philosophy on file-sharing and load em’ up w/ some friends!
http://www.myspace.com/travis
I knew friend count was a popular contest on those social networking sites, but I didn’t know anyone would come out and say it so bluntly.
I’d feel it enough of a reward that people listened to and enjoyed my music. Sure people still need to make a living, but where is it written that musicians must be at least millionaires?
At the same time, there’s still money to be made online where all money goes to the artist/band, and with a much larger audience, potential profits are huge, if prices are modest and affordable. Then there’s advertising to pay off online and other costs if products are popular.
If live touring is possible there’s an added bonus, or maybe the greatest source of income. You don’t have to be great. If other acts are involved there’s a shared cost and less work is involved, requiring maybe just 1 or 2 songs.
I don’t know what I’m talking about but hope there’s some sense in it.
@15
It doesn’t seem to be a discussion board.
In any case, I think that the solution to replacing the current corrupt culture of copyright is to replace it with a culture of appreciating the little people’s works, you know, a culture of appreciating what the average everyday person has created.
Hmm, nice song! Never heard anything of this band before. Definetly worth looking into.
“As far as illegal filesharing goes. There are people who will buy albums and people who will record them off friends. If you took away the Internet this would still happen so I don’t lose any sleep. Goodnight.”
Is this why their torrents are full of poisoned data? This doesn’t come from fans or from the labels, but artists themselves.
This wouldn’t be part of the current trend in feigning alliance with file sharers?
@23
“Is this why their torrents are full of poisoned data? This doesn’t come from fans or from the labels, but artists themselves.”
Er… you know that how exactly?
It’s a pity that Travis’ music sucks balls.
e.g.
“Why does it always rain on me, is it because I lied when I was 17?”
I always disliked travis because i hated that “Why Does It Always Rain On Me?” song. But with an attitude like shown in this article, i can now eventually forgive them for that song. :)
@14 +25 you can thank your creator that ME is not a mod here ;-) otherwise your spam like repeated linking would have been gone right that moment.
(Yes you morons on the dark knights, that is what happend to yours on some on TPB)
@ people from Glasgow
I guess artist with such attitude turns the picture regarding what kind of people come from where you live.
Say glasgowers, don’t you feel ashamed such such a bitch like “Melissa” Indi Gregg and the wannebee highlander Ian claim to origin from glasgow too? Blame the Lenzie guys for harboring such clear idiots compared to Travis.
@Travis
Well, I don’t know exactly how high the fees for micro money payment systems are, but if you guys can get a good deal, then why not setup such an account so that those that “pirate” your songs (while you obviously don’t think that this is bad) can donate you guys some “P irate R adio S ystem”-money for listening to you via Radio 2.0 aka Bittorrent
Travis are a great British band that fortunately come from the era where music still had some talent. Then came Simon Cowell…
Awesome comments from the band..I for one just order the cd and actually paid for it this time lol…Rock on travis…
This is great and all, and I think the bands music is pretty cool.
But can someone help me understand this part?
“Maybe a way to deal with the situation would be to not go for the guy streaming the content but go for the service provider. If you took away free entertainment from the menu, they’d lose 99% of their business. If I was a gambling man I’d wager Internet is taking over from TV and will probably replace it by 2040.”
Is he saying.. make the ISP’s kill the file sharing sites?
Why the hell would you try and make it the service providers problem.. thats just wrong.
or mabye im missing something.
“who the fuck is travis?”
Who the fuck ARE travis !!Why do Americans always use the singular when describing groups ,who are, by their very nature plural? bit off topic i know,but it fuckin pisses me off!!
Maybe because »Travis« is a persons name? When I’d form a band and name it »John« and you’d hear someone talk about »John« not knowing it is a band you’d probably ask the same question. »Who’s John«.
PS: You’re an idiot.
ALERT!!!!!
15 Aug 01, 2008 at 02:33 by disc
@14
Why not discuss here http://companynewsnetwork.com ? They do not require registration either.
Do not go there… Drive d/l shite.
I think it’s great. but, at least travis had the chance to give their blessings for this guy. bands still should have a choice where their music is shared or where it is given away as a download.
you do realise that this is about a music blog and not about a file-sharing network? A lot of bands allow their music to be downloaded free in various blogs.
@pixie 4 Travis didn’t say that they agree with file-sharing. Indiana Gregg actually said she was for file-sharing but believes that musician’s should have a share of the revenues on torrent sites. She has given away several of her songs free. I have downloaded full files from her. I’m a glaswegian living in the US and I follow glasgow music so I know a lot about.
“who the fuck is travis?”
“Who the fuck ARE travis !!Why do Americans always use the singular when describing groups ,who are, by their very nature plural? bit off topic i know,but it fuckin pisses me off!!”
Actually I’m Canadian. But thanks for grouping me in with those douchbags.
Mistaking a Canadian for an American is terribly offensive here. lol.
“Who the fuck ARE travis !!Why do Americans always use the singular when describing groups ,who are, by their very nature plural? bit off topic i know,but it fuckin pisses me off!!”
But isn’t the band singular? There is only one band called Travis. It’s just one thing. If someone said “who are the members of Travis” then it would be plural because there is more than one member of the band.
“If I was a gambling man I’d wager Internet is taking over from TV and will probably replace it by 2040.”
He’d lose a lot of money. Dunno about there, but over here there are already more ppl using the internet frequently than those who watch TV frequently. :D
“Who the fuck ARE travis !!Why do Americans always use the singular when describing groups ,who are, by their very nature plural? bit off topic i know,but it fuckin pisses me off!!”
Dude, read a grammar book. The correct rule here is that a group can be seen as either singular (i.e., *one* group) or plural (i.e., *many* ppl). Hence, “WTF is Travis?” and “WTF are Travis?” are *both* correct.
Fran Healey is sooo right about the business working on an old model and the internet being a giant!
Good on him for having *such* a modern view.
:)
Usually the bands that get involved with file-sharing are nobodies and slag off P2P.
Yet here is a top band speaking out in favour of it.
I think Travis are really good and if anyone outside of the UK hasn’t heard of them you should definately give them a try :)
he is not speaking out for P2p at all. it looks more like he is against it and won’t lose sleep over it.
I don’t know who the fuck Travis is but i’m going to buy theyr record that’s for sure! :)
Solid rock attitude!
Download Travis | J. Smith @ http://somuchsilence.com/?p=1257 .
damn….i thoght aquireing music from a blog was a safe haven (both for d/l and u/l) now where will i get my sources!!!!11!!
“Who are Travis?”
Just the coolest band in the world. Word to yout mother,
Redly
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