Comments on: Agent of chaos

By: James Lewis

James Lewis — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:56:56 +0000

I’m a fan of Lily Allen, but can’t understand her take on file sharing as she launched her career in a very forward thinking way ie releasing all her music free and creating a huge fanbase on her own. Maybe now she’s rich she’s got a bit brainwashed?
Good blog though, I totally agree with filesharing, in fact I encourage it.
Musicians will always earn money if their music is popular, end of story. Selling individual ‘units’ maybe isn’t the way any more, so diversify then. Anyway I’m not going to feel sorry for a few whinging millionaires losing a few quid. Three cheers for the internet.

By: Tagmoide

Tagmoide — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:15:02 +0000

I would just like to say that i have always been a fan of lilly allen until now. The majority of people like my self are disabled or unemployed, And would not be able to aford to buy the music any way. People taped off the radio or coppied there mates record or cd for years, The only thing that has changed is the technology. there is a lot of people who download songs and then buy there albums for there collections, Any Artist that complains about illigal downloading is risking loosing fans they forget about all the downloaders that pay good money to go and see them in concert. As far as i am concerend Lilly Allen can go to hell, And she needs to get her dad to stop stealing off transport companies, Before she complains about people not as fortunate as her self. K.

By: tacogirl

tacogirl — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:03:24 +0000

You are an agent of Chaos with style – I know of a few who are a bit to explosive lol

By: Josh

Josh — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:07:18 +0000

I watched The Dark Knight and yet I can’t remember that thing up there. I seem to have been unconscious throughout so many films lately. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

I am a casual onlooker but it does seem a pile fishiness – contradictions and stuff flying about. If this really was a nice attempt to help independent musicians as Allen’s blog post makes out, then why the heck are they getting out lawyers and stuff? Surely, after getting some thoughts from these people they’re ‘sticking up for’, they’d say ‘okay, sorry, is there anything else we can do to help music survive?’ The only possibility then must be that this is a way to get the masses away from a platform that doesn’t make them money (filesharing) onto a platform that helps the record companies, still not the artists but never mind (myspace/spotify).

Also, I thought Matt Bellamy was a kind of more entertaining, weirder version of David Attenborough. Turns out that’s David Bellamny

Interesting to see a lot more people in this comments section.

Random note: commenting links on the front page with targets ending in #comments do not jump directly to the comments section as they ought to. Add an s to the #comment div’s id and all will be well, I would think.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:39:57 +0000

I gotta admit, I came here via underdogs post (to see what he was talking about) and you’ve kinda hit the nail on the head here. You’ve induced chaos with your post that has generated a lot of online buzz – and the return? Well, you might have gotten a few people say nasty things about you, but more to the point you’ve generated a hell of a lot of traffic to your site, some of which will hopefully convert for you!

For that, I say bravo.

As for my take on the industry thing – I honestly haven’t got an argument. File sharing will always win. FACT (couldn’t resist :P) The more you attempt to suppress something, the more ways it will find itself out in the open. Hell, if the media didn’t make such a big thing out of file sharing in the first place, the amount of people that know about it would have been a lot less!

Dan

By: Tim Kennedy

Tim Kennedy — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 05:30:14 +0000

if you are genuinely an anarchist, then yes, your arguement is valid. This industry is no different to any other. There is an unequal distribution of wealth starting with high earning CEOs and ending with the cleaners, and manufacturers. These people are selling their labour and the musicians are indifferent. Depending on how skilled they are, the more or less money they earn. But if you are merely targetting this one industry from all the capitalistic institutions in modern society, then you are no different than everyone else. shallow. Simply making up excuses in order to comfort the unethical actions that you make. Though you might bring down a few big fish, the majority of people affected will be the little guys. and it always is.

By: james

james — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 08:37:59 +0000

I don’t file share….. well thats sort of a lie, American TV shows that take forever to air here in the UK are just too tempting NOT to download (leave me on a cliff hanger, and then dont come back on air for a year and you expect me NOT to find other ways???) But if the show is good, then i will buy the boxset… and i think that fair.

Like you said taping didn’t destroy the music industry, and most people i know MOST like 95% of people don’t illegally file share, mostly because the service is never as good as buying legit, the quality in inconsistant, and not everyone wants to listen to music either through their computer or and ipod……

If you make a product that people want to buy, then i would hope that people would buy it … which is why i still buy vinyl when and where i can, it’s aesthetically pleasing, Deliver a crap product and kids wont care if they just walk around playing a shitty tinny version of it though their mobile phone (what is wrong with teenagers today)

By: clud

clud — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 07:49:08 +0000

I’m pretty sure that’s not what The Joker meant.

By: Carly

Carly — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 07:27:34 +0000

I am only 17 but I am very involved with the local music industry (in Australia) and, through social networking, some unknown international artists.
While I believe it isn’t too bad to illegally download music of people from big labels who earn millions of dollars I really believe you have to point out how devastating it is for unsigned bands when people start stealing their music.
For most of these bands music is their full time job and without album sales they cannot afford to produce new music for people to hear.
So go ranting on about big record labels all you want but PLEASE take at least a line of your spiel to encourage people to buy the albums of artists who are unsigned or signed with small companies. These guys have no assistance from famous parents or anything to give them a leg-up in the industry but some are of amazing quality and deserve the recognition.

Thanks.

By: scarr

scarr — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 02:57:23 +0000

While I agree with your argument that artists and labels should embrace file sharing (as an inevitable outcome of the internet age), calling Lily Allen a “puppet” for having a different opinion is unwarranted and unjust.

It might get attention, but one thing all too common these days is people doing things solely for attention, rather than actually delivering something of value. Rather than use this attention as a platform to (seemingly) vent about industry shills, why not use it to make a sound argument for why consumers don’t like being restricted unfairly and why the industry (or at least artists) should find new ways of doing business that aren’t based on outdated models?

By: Emma

Emma — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:03:54 +0000

And no, for the record, i am not a lily allen fan.

By: Burner

Burner — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:01:40 +0000

The umpteen millions of music consumers don’t really think the corporate dragon exists and would hate to believe it sullies pretty Lily with its greed and determination to control the consumer. They fucked us over for years with the Cd scam, particularly in the UK. File sharing is Karmic payback perhaps?

By: Jaime

Jaime — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:10:22 +0000

I am a fan of Lily Allen’s music. While I’m not necessarily comfortable with the character attacks you’ve made on Miss Allen (though I’m not really taking sides since I haven’t investigated any of them), I do agree that this crusade of hers is a lost cause. I’m also disappointed to discover Matt Bellamy’s involvement since I am a Muse fan as well. The music industry, and to some extent film industry, is trying to fight technology in an attempt to salvage an outdated business model. They are not only fighting technology, they are fighting the consumer, and this is a very dangerous step for any business to take. In order to remain relevant, the best option is for the industry is to learn to adapt to these technological advances. It also seems that they are ignorant to one important fact: when they started prosecuting for file sharing, torrents took over. Now that they are going after torrents something new will come along, and this cycle will continue until the music and film industries can no longer afford to pay their legal fees. Growing technology is continuously providing consumers with more and more control over the market. It’s time businesses face this fact rather than fight it.

By: Ellie

Ellie — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:55:41 +0000

I completely love this entry – it amused me. Chaos is fair, agreed, and I like the Lily abuse, even though I’m neutral towards her. Well done x

By: Viper

Viper — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:39:59 +0000

Brilliant work, sir.

Those that back Lily Allen and crew are just sheep, going along with whatever their idols say.

Fuck Lily Allen, fuck the RIAA, fuck GEMA, and fuck anyone against fair use. Labels and artists get sales when people think they deserve it, just like it’s always been. It’s just that now that they’re both being douchebags about file sharing and fair use, people aren’t buying their stuff.

Fuck ‘em and pirate your music until they figure it out. It’s hitting them where it counts, in the wallet, and Lily’s tirade is worth it.