Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos, quoted in a Playboy interview last year, scored a hit for proponents of the digital music downloads movement:
“I like the idea that, because of downloading, people are going to buy songs only if they are good,”
he continued:
“I think that’s a positive thing. It means lazy bands aren’t going to get away with giving you one hit single and an album full of filler. We like the idea that every song should stand up in its own right so you don’t have to listen to a song in the context of an album to understand it.”
The band, from Glasgow, Scotland, is encouraging fans to illegally download its latest recording, say Aversion.
“Franz isn’t too keen on greasing the wheels of capitalism [sic], and encourages fans to pirate the song from peer-to-peer networks,”
Colombia Records were incensed in 2000 when The Offspring tried to make its record ‘Conspiracy of One’ a 100% free download.
It’s truly interesting how differently producers, record companies and artists see differently on the subject of free downloads and ‘pirated’ music – those that make the music just want to get it out and heard, while those just in it for the money can’t seem to understand this position. It’s a natural effect of a capitalist market, true, but nonetheless it does stink of record companies and corporations inability to accept that downloads (free, pirated, or otherwise) are here to stay.