The Next Web

“Speaking at BBC 7 Music’s John Peel lecture, Pete Townshend of The Who said that Apple’s iTunes music store acts as a “digital vampire” that is bleeding artists without offering benefit, reports the BBC. Townshend said that Apple should use the power of the music store to aid artists through nurturing and editorial guidance, something he says publishers and labels have done in the past. Is there really any good reason why, just because iTunes exists in the wild west internet land of Facebook and Twitter, it can’t provide some aspect of these services to the artists whose work it bleeds like a digital vampire, like a digital Northern Rock, for its enormous commission? Townshend also said that the record industry is dying and that Apple should hire 20 talent scouts to guide new performers and support the ‘best’ of those. Townshend also, interestingly enough, had a lot to say about illegal downloads, comparing them to people stealing his son’s bike, although he did say that it was “tricky to argue for the innate value of copyright from a position of good fortune, as I do. I’ve done all right.”

October 31, 2011 · 6:41 pm · 41 notes « Prev  Next »