Richard Hall is a dance musician popularly known by his stage name Moby. Moby is just one of a growing list of artists who are beginning to make their songs available online for free. Moby has made the stems from his most recent album Innocence available online via BitTorrent for fans to create their own remixes.
In a recent interview, he told musically.com that he believes the music industry’s approach to piracy has been rather short sighted. From what I can gather from the interview, I believe Moby is essentially conveying the need for the music industry to take a more long term holistic view on piracy. Whilst, piracy may be harmful in the short term, in the long term the artists and the industry as a whole will have a greater benefit from the production of music through merchandise and other sources of revenue. Thus, accordingly placing too much of an importance on the short term gain the industry makes through the sale of individual songs and albums is unnecessary.
Before I continue, I can’t stress enough that the above is me paraphrasing the jist of what I believe Moby is saying.
Moby’s view holds a lot of merit, and is one that has been made many times, but not one that has been directly addressed in this blog. In my personal opinion, I completely agree with the view. I personally believe it may be better for the industry if they start focusing on the revenue they can make through merchandise and tours instead of going after individuals for pirating their music.
However, if I was to play the Devil’s advocate, I would argue that it probably isn’t a good idea for the music industry to simply give up on the short term either. By doing so they may create an atmosphere where stealing from the artists and label seems okay. This, aside from the obvious detriment in the short term, will also prove to be harmful in the long term with the potential increase in bootlegged goods.
Sources:
http://www.musicweek.com/news/read/music-industry-has-taken-a-shortsighted-approach-to-piracy-moby/056873
Interview: Moby talks BitTorrent, Spotify and artists’ digital rights
