UK artist Dan Bull delivers a scathing video rebuttal to Lily Allen and her seemingly hypocritical rantings against file-sharers.
UK pop singer Lily Allen has created quite a firestorm since first lashing out at out at what she calls “rich and successful” music artists from the Featured Artists Coalition for criticizing efforts by the UK govt for a “three-strikes” crackdown on illegal file-sharing.
“Basically the FAC is saying ‘we’re alright, we’ve made it, so file sharing’s fine’,” she said in a MySpace celebrity blog post. which is just so unfair to new acts trying to make it in the industry. They do sell-out arena tours and have the biggest Ferrari collections in the world. For new talent though, file sharing is a disaster as it’s making it harder and harder for new acts to emerge.”
Talk about throwing stones from glass houses. Allen actually grew up surrounded by wealth and privilege, and so berating file-sharers for not paying artists like her more of what she feels owed makes her seem even more disconnected from the lives of average UK music fans than she already is.
The FAC responded by reiterating that it’s not pro-file-sharing, but merely against the proposed policy of the UK govt to disconnect file-sharers from the Internet. It thinks it should only target those who share or offer content for commercial gain.
“The focus of our objection is the proposed treatment of ordinary music fans who download a few tracks so as to check out our material before they buy,” it said. “For those of us who don’t get played on the radio or mentioned in the music media – artists established and emerging – P2P recommendation is an important form of promotion.”
Allen went so far as to create a blog to invite other artists who agreed with her to post letters of support, but it was quickly inundated with replies to those posts criticizing her anti-file-sharing stance and so Allen decided to pull the plug.
Nevermind the fact that Allen is apparently clueless about copyright laws herself, and arguably could’ve lost her Internet connection as well under a “three-strikes” regime.
Why she wouldn’t think giving artists almost complete control over their music seems amazingly short-sighted and ignorant of the past. Before P2P and the Internet artists had to first convince a record label they were worthy of distribution. Imagine all the music that went unnoticed and unheard by the masses because it wasn’t considered lucrative or mainstream enough? For the first time musicians can reach fans across the globe directly! Why she doesn’t think that’s a good thing is beyond me.
Enter Dan Bull, a musician labeled “one of Britain’s best young songwriters” by Is This Music? Magazine. He’s precisely one of the emerging artists that seems to be using the Internet and the art of the free album giveaway as a means to promote his work and gain fans.
He wrote a melodic rebuttal to Lily Allen’s rantings called “Dear Lily [an Open Letter to Lily Allen],” and posted it as a part of a video on YouTube.
The song really cuts to the heart of the matter and sums up just how short-sighted and naive Allen really is.
“And downloads don’t equate to sales so taking them away won’t make me pay up – just procludes me from sending your tunes to my friends, so we all lose in the end,” he sings. “You lose potential fans and we lose respect for the fact that you’re desperate for cash.”
In any event, let it also be noted that Bull’s latest album Safe is available for free download as is the MP3-only version of the song “Dear Lily.”
Here’s track #10 from the album. It’s titled “Outbound.”
Stay tuned.
[Hat Tip to "legless"]
188,417 views compared to Lilly’s song that got 1 000 000 since February. Not bad Dan Bull not bad at all.
I wish Dan Bull great success in his endeavours.. he’s obviously got the lyrical chops to make it as a songwriter, if he has enough things to say.
As long as he gains enough fans who are willing to support him -monetarily-, then like any artist he will do just fine. Downloading songs without paying doesn’t directly accomplish that goal, of course. Sharing songs with friends thereby broadening exposure for an artist -can- help as long as someone out there chooses to part with their money and directly support an artist.
I won’t be paying to see her movies anymore than i paid for or pirated her music.The only exception will be if shes in a horror movie i would pay to watch her have her head cut off!!!!!!!!!!!!!.LMFAO.
Looking deeper into this, Dan Bull is the perfect model for a new generation of music production. He started his own studio to self release his own album through the internet which he is offering for free. Best of all it sounds professional. If he doesn’t get airplay its only because radio has been bought out.
That song is really well conceived. It does a great job of not only attacking Allen’s message, but it promotes the ideal of filesharing and the failures of copyright extensively. Guess when an artist performs his message is much stronger than someone who simply performs and art.