Lily Allen Attacks Musicians Who Defend File Sharing

Lily Allen says file sharing is a 'disaster' for young artists. Is it?

Just about a few days ago we were talking about the music industry being divided over the file sharing issue. Here is another fact to support that claim. 24-year-old English pop singer-songwriter Lily Allen has spoken out against fellow artists who don’t want to fight against illegal file sharing.

On her Myspace blog the singer expresses her doubts that aspiring young artists could somehow benefit from this sort of practice:"It probably is fine for them. 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. "

Lily Allen said she totally disagrees with those musicians members of the Featured Artists Coalition who, like Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien or Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason, defend file sharers and oppose Lord Mandelson’s plans to cut off the internet connection of repeat file sharers:

"The coalition also says that file sharing is good because it “means a new generation of fans for us”. This is great if you are a big artist at the back end of your career with albums to flog to a new audience, but emerging artists don’t have this luxury. The FAC is basically saying: “We’re all right, we’ve made it, so file sharing’s fine.”

You don’t start out in music with Ferraris. You start with a huge debt from your record company, which you spend years working to repay. When you get a contract, all those videos and posters have to be paid for — and you, the artist, pay for them. "

Another musician, Patrick Wolf responded to her blog-post in a interview to NME: " I have been really inspired by Lily writing on her blog. Do what you can to protect the music you love. Invest in physical purchases."