Musicians Thankful for File Sharing

Fleet Foxes' self-titled debut album came out last summer and was called best album of 2008 by Billboard, The Times, Mojo, Pitchfork and Uncut. The band says they owe their success to Napster.

More and more bands and artists are talking about the benefits of p2p file sharing contradicting what the entertainment industry is trying hard to prove with high numbers and cohorts of lawyers. Such a band is Fleet Foxes and their success lately comes to demonstrates that file sharing is not all that bad after all. The album they released climbed to number three in the UK chart in February.

The US-based folks advocate the advantages of illegal downloading which has made it possible for new aspirant artists to get their names exposed to a larger audience.

Besides that, singer Robin Pecknold emphasized the role this so long ostracized phenomenon had for him personally in discovering many of the classic artists that had a great influence on him.

"That was how I discovered almost everything when I was a teenager – my dad brought home a modem."

The musician also said that the band couldn’t have developed artistically as they have, hadn’t been for Napster and other such music services while growing up.

"That was how I was exposed to almost all of the music that I love to this day, and still that's the easiest way to find really obscure stuff.

"I've discovered so much music through that medium. That will be true of any artist my age, absolutely."

After his “pleading” in favour of file-sharing, Pecknold concluded: "I've downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records – why would I care if somebody downloads ours? That's such a petty thing to care about. "

I guess music industry and musicians are becoming more than ever two distinct entities whose visions about how things should be done and how people should enjoy art will separate them for good some day not far in the future.