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Patrick Wolf Backs Lily Allen Against Illegal Downloading

Patrick Wolf Backs Lily Allen Against Illegal Downloading Both English musicians, Patrick Wolf and Lily Allen, have been in the spotlight for unfortunate circumstances other than their music. Now they’re both teaming up to say that the Featured Artists Coalition is being way too leniant on piracy.

Allen has previously made her disagreement with Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien public when she posted a blog stating her concern over the Coalition’s responsibility for making illegal downloading seem okay:

“I think music piracy is having a dangerous effect on British music, but some really rich and successful artists like Nick Mason from Pink Floyd and Ed O’Rien from Radiohead don’t seem to think so [...] Basically the FAC is saying ‘we’re alright, we’ve made it, so file sharing’s fine’, which is just so unfair to new acts trying to make it in the industry [...] I’m going to be writing [to] British artists, saying just this: File sharing’s not okay for British music. We need to find new ways to help consumers access and buy music legally, but saying file sharing’s fine is not helping anyone – and definitely not helping British music.”

According to NME, fellow Brit, Patrick Wolf, is also making his stance public by siding with Allen. On his own MySpace blog, Wolf expressed his anger by saying:

“I have been really inspired by Lily [...] I can only do my best in saying I am on the same ship as you all and the ship is sinking. But what is life without hope! Let’s start a new future… think about where all the lovely music comes from [...] Do what you can to protect the music you love, invest in physical purchases, think about the machinery that goes on behind making your favourite band so fabulous and inspiring… and how they should be able to make a living as well as you too.”

This seems like a never-ending argument because of its effects on the music industry, but it’s definitely not that easy to weigh out the pros and cons, as you all have let us know. There are different factors which go into different opinions and it’s ultimately one huge mess.

Do you agree with Wolf and Allen or do you think the Featured Artist Coalition is heading in the right direction?