I meant to link to this last week, but I’m glad other things got in the way as the article has progressed giving both sides of the story.
Pete at intermaweb.net posted a well referenced article entitled An Open Letter to the Hilltop Hoods after taking offence at some comments made on a DVD by the Australian Hip-Hop band Hilltop Hoods.
This article took the form of Pete’s views on the subject at hand and a cross section of recent articles (PDF) from various musicians and authors.
It was quite an interesting read and something I agree with. The basic feeling I got from the article that he supports the idea of using the internet (be it P2P</a> or whatever) as a way of discovering new artists. I myself have more recently been in the situation where, as a music lover who doesn’t get chance to watch nearly as much music TV as I used to and can’t abide the radio, I have used the internet to discover new artists. Most recently this “try before you buy” method lead me and a group of friends to Open Hand, their new You and Me album and two of their gigs when they were over here in the summer. Like Pete if it wasn’t for my online exposure to the band I most likely would not of heard their material.
Today I noticed that there was a response from a member of the band to Pete’s initial post which he has added his own thoughts. This not gives a nice insight into both sides of the coin but also shows how fragile the DRM</a> situation has become.