Music Ally

a2f2a? Sounds like a dodgy pr0n site acronym to us! But no, it’s the name of a new blog that aims to connect artists and fans to thrash out the issues around digital music and online piracy.

It’s the work of P2PNet blogger Jon Newton and singer/songwriter Billy Bragg, with a2f2a standing for ‘artists-to-fans-to-artists’.

“Our objective at this forum is to explore with music fans how viable a2f models might work, and to introduce those ideas into the ongoing debate about the new digital music industry,” says Bragg.

If you’re launching a campaign to portray Google as the bad guy in a dispute over licensing payments, don’t give Pete Waterman a microphone. That’s the lesson from today’s launch of PRS for Music’s Fair Play for Creators campaign.

A millionaire music mogul comparing his paltry YouTube royalty cheques to the plight of exploited construction workers living in squalor in Dubai is, frankly, ridiculous. And it undermines the very serious message that PRS is trying to get across about rights for all songwriters and composers – not just the rich ones.

Thankfully, other voices were present at today’s launch, including Billy Bragg. Music Ally sat down with him at the event to get his views on the campaign, and the wider issues around it. It certainly provides a counterpoint to Waterman’s “fucking unbelievable” (in Bragg’s words) comments.

Read on…

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The UK-based Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) is finally holding its first meeting today in London, after its original date was scuppered by inclement weather. The body has been formed to campaign for artists’ rights, with digital high on its agenda.

“YouTube’s row with the PRS is the most recent example of just how fast the music industry is changing,” says board member (and Blur drummer) Dave Rowntree. “There has never been a greater need for the collective voice of featured artists, whose music generates 95% of revenue in the industry, to be properly heard.”

Fellow board member Billy Bragg has also chimed in: “Google, YouTube’s owner is a company that makes billions in profits; we think they should be paying artist royalties from the advertising revenue they make,” he tells The Times.