‘The industry makes a mistake and admits it’ shocker!

t’s funny, because I swear I saw a pig fly past my office window this morning. I rubbed my eyes with disbelief, then clicked onto the BBC news website to catch up on the goings-on of the day and found THIS – and admission from the BPI that the music industry would be in better shape now had it worked with Napster rather than fought it.

Stone the crows. An admission that, wait for it, the industry has got it wrong. That’s according to Geoff Taylor, head of music industry body BPI, in a column written for the BBC. His comments are not only welcome but well overdue. If you can’t be bothered to read the whole BBC report, Mr Taylor
says: “I, for one, regret that we weren’t faster in figuring out how to create a sustainable model for music on the internet…In 1999 Napster developed a great digital service, but did so at the expense of music, while the music business protected music at the expense of progressing online digital services.”

I’ve blogged and moaned for years that the industry needs a wake up call when it comes to the MP3 and digital music. Constantly suing downloaders and/or shutting down sites like The Pirate Bay won’t solve the problem. After all, Kazaa, Napster and others popped up in the wake of something else shutting down. The issue should have been about adapting and welcoming new technologies and not being frightened of embracing it and the BPI recognising that fact is movement at least. All we need now is positive action and a willingness to actually embrace the technology – and not just talk about old mistakes.

RIP Michael Jackson

I can’t say I’m a Michael Jackson fan, but like any kid who grew up in the 80s your musical diet would have contained a strong dose of Jacko – whether directly through the ‘Thriller’ or ‘Bad’ albums or indirectly via his music videos, ‘Moonwalk’ or style which has gone on to influence thousands of artists across the world. His death is very sad; no-one deserves to die at 50 years of age. He hadn’t done anything of note for a decade and was about to embark on a huge 50-date run in London but it wasn’t to be. Jacko will always be remembered for being eccentric and for his love of small children. But whether you liked him or not, he will always be the King of Pop.

CD v vinyl v MP3

My good friend Mike Scott has blogged about ’surviving the death of a format’. It’s a great read, if I do say so. You can check it out at http://mikescottpunktastic.wordpress.com/2009/06/15/surviving-the-death-of-a-format…/

I don’t geek out over too many bands…

…but the ones I do geek out over…I really geek out over.

My love for The Format is hardly a secret. I’ve blogged about them before – Hell, I have framed posters of the band’s artwork which go up my staircase. There’s something about this band that I love, love, love.

So basically today’s blog is a message, neigh, a command, to go and listen to them. They may well be dead or on hiatus but their music still strikes a chord with me. Listen at www.myspace.com/theformat and let me know what you think!

Pirates and politics

As far right extremist groups seemed to dominate the geadlines following last week’s European Elections, a slightly quirkier and more interesting story seems to have been missed by the more mainstream media – the rise to prominence of the ‘Pirate Party’ in Sweden. The group has campaigned on reformation of copyright law and secured 7.1 per cent of the vote – and a seat in the European Parliament. At face value it sounds like a novelty vote, but if you scratch the surface of what the party wants to do it pretty much affects every single person that reads PT, although in totally different ways.

Let’s rewind a little first. The party was founded in 2006 with 900 members signing up within the first month. They grew steadily until May 31, 2006 when Swedish police raided The Pirate Bay. Suddenly the party found themselves in the public eye. Before the raid, the Party was steadily growing with some 10 new members every day, but the aforementioned raid by the police led to more than 500 new members by the end of the day, with a membership count of 2,680. The next day another 930 people had register membership, giving a total of 3,611 members, more than doubling their original number. With the bit between their teeth the party lobbied with other political parties and the right to free information became their main focus. In April 2009, after The Pirate Bay trial was over, the Pirate Party gained 3,000 members in 7 hours, making it bigger than 3 of the 7 parties in the Swedish parliament. One week later it had already 40,000 members – compared to 15,000 members before the verdict and has now more members than 5 of the 7 parties in the Swedish Parliament, with over 46,376 members as of 22 May 2009.

With a ready-made audience and a 21st cause to fight for, there’s no surprise the party has become popular with younger people. Not just that, but they’ve also changed the stance of other political parties in Sweden. In 2006 both prime minister candidates stated publicly that it shouldn’t be illegal for young people to share files. Additionally, the Swedish Minister of Justice, Thomas Bodström, announced on June 9 that he was willing to negotiate a possible revision of the law introduced in 2005 that made unauthorized downloading of copyrighted material illegal, introducing a new tax on broadband Internet access, but he later denied having changed his stance on the issue. In January 2008 seven Swedish members of parliament from the Moderate Party, member of the governing coalition, authored a piece in a Swedish tabloid calling for the complete decriminalization of filesharing. The Swedish members of parliament wrote that “Decriminalizing all non-commercial file sharing and forcing the market to adapt is not just the best solution. It’s the only solution, unless we want an ever more extensive control of what citizens do on the Internet.”

Now the party can take their fight for internet freedoms to a bigger audience. The Pirate Party is spreading its wings with active political groups in Germany, Spain, Austria, Poland and Finland. In Germany the party received 200,000 votes at the Euros, although this accounted for just 0.9 per cent of the total. So how does it affect you? If the Pirate Party’s ideals managed to get wider support then it could open the doors for downloading to go from illegal status to legal. Obviously that’s a sweeping statement, but the fight against illegal filesharing is totally and utterly pointless. Short of shutting down the internet, there’s no way you could ever stop it. The merits of whether it is right or wrong are becoming pointless – the system and set up needs to adapt and change; those who react the best to change will survive. Is it right for politicians to get involved in copyright law? Would you vote for a UK Pirate Party? How would it effect you?

I’ve waited a long time for this…

We’ll be announcing some news on Punktastic tomorrow that makes me VERY excited. I think a lot of people have waited a long time for this…

Hey, it’s Monday

When I post pictures viewing figures go up. When I post pretty ladies they go up even more. I’m currently having one of those man-crush-type-things on Hey Monday’s Cassadee Pope. Niiiice.

Still awesome

Even though ‘Smart Casual’ came out a year ago barely a day goes by without me playing at least one song from it. Such a feelgood record.

Go vote. Please.

I’ve never used PT or my PT-affiliated blog to preach politics before. I’ve always kept out of it because I feel people shouldn’t have information rammed down their throats on an ‘entertainment’ website. When I was growing up there was nothing worse than someone telling me what was right or wrong. I hated it and I still hate it now – people should have the right to make their own minds up. But no matter what you think about MPs expenses or the mess we’re in globally, Thursday’s elections, whether it be local council or European, are so, so important. And it doesn’t matter whether you vote for one of the ‘big three’ parties or your reasons for doing so. Just go vote.

For the first time in a long time the far-right has got a foothold in people’s minds. They’re preying on the vulnerable and spreading messages of hate. They’re alienating people with lies to try and gain their votes. And if you’re eligible to vote tomorrow, do everything you can to stop the BNP gaining seats in Europe. The BNP is a racist organisation which has declared their belief in an all white Britain. This would mean no black players in our national sports teams, no black musicians, no black nurses, no Asian doctors and surgeons, no black or Asian faces in public life. The BNP build support by whipping up hatred against every minority – just as Hitler targeted Jewish people. But, like the Nazis, if the BNP ever came to power they would strip every person in this country of their democratic rights and freedoms.

There could well be a lot of voter apathy on Thursday and this could mean parties like the BNP get in through the back door, so to speak. Please don’t give them that opportunity.

My friend Sam from Get Cape Wear Cape Fly is far more eloquent at these things than I am, so go visit his blog here and read up. Alternatively check out Hope Not Hate or Unite Against Fascism

Yum yum

Whenever I post pictures on my blog the visits go up. It’s like a moth to a flame. So here’s a photo of a lovely lady called Lights. She’s Canadian. Her music is pretty good but I don’t think she’s quite found her flow yet. She’s also very pretty. (I’m so shallow). There’s something about a girl in a headband…