10 January 2001
Napster

I checked out the site yesterday with my son. I was amazed how quickly one can gather together good quality tracks. This is because a lot of people in the USA have their Internet service provided by cable companies, and their lines are open pretty much all the time. It's usually possible to find a copy of what you want to listen to.

My son regarded what we did as illegal. He kept saying it was wrong to steal the music. I told him we were listening to it, just that. When we were finished we could trash it if he preferred. If he wants to fight for my rights he could call up BMI and ask them why my broadcast-related payments were so low during the years The Who were in the top 10 AOR playlists. He might ask them why during the 1989 Who tour, when we paid a huge sum of money to BMI for the right to perform songs I had written, they eventually paid me (after a lot of complaining from my manager) a tiny portion of that sum, excusing themselves because their main payout area that year was Nashville.

Two things struck me looking at Napster. One was hooray - at last I might as well say fuck BMI. They are not protecting me any more, if they ever did.

The other was ..... now I have BT openworld ADSL (which runs at about 500kbps at its best) everything seems easier simply because it's so much faster. When your computer hangs, you know about it sooner. When you've connected to a server you know straight away. Even if some downloads still take time, getting hooked up in the first place seems so much quicker.

What is immediately clear is that the future is Broadband entertainment. There is now no question in my mind. I wonder who will be the first artist to offer a daily live performance programme?

The second fact was that when I typed in my own name there was such a lot of stuff. Even very obscure material was there. This raises an interesting hypothetical point. Supposing a bootlegger gathered up rare tracks and put together some interesting artwork, and - with a limited edition - managed to sell say 2000 to Japanese collectors. Does the involved editorial and graphic creative work (necessary to make the package interesting enough to sell) justify the rip?

As things stand I think there is enough for everyone. Many bootleggers do better work repackaging than record companies. That's because they are often fans. But many bootleggers are not fans. They produce conterfeit CDs in huge volume. Mo Ostin admitted as much to me once back in 1982 when WB were chasing Pacific rim bootleggers who were producing better quality vinyl than they were.

Ultimately, in the face of all this exploitation of my art, whether by fans, criminals or incestuous and lazy institutions like BMI, I do feel gently forced into reliance on what only I can do - that is, to perform live, and to constantly produce new work.

If everything I do is immediately used by others for their own collateral will there be an inevitable fall in quality in what I do? By turning out too much, will I fail to honour my audience? I think not. As things stand I am aware I rarely do enough. And, as so many artists have said, radio stations, newspapers and magazines have freely used and abused the reputation, work and images of pop artists for the last 50 years. Artists cannot control over-exposure of their image. They can only run with publicity and hope for the best.

What's my reality? My reality is that because of the certain knowledge (gathered in the main from the internet) that people want to hear my music, I am writing today. I run a web site. I give away some of my music. If it is packaged well I sell it. I was armed with information gathered from the internet when I approached last year's Who touring work. I was certain we would sell out wherever we played, and barring the loss of a ticket here or there, we sold out. (How nice for BMI).

There may be a fall in quality if I try to do too much. A performance on the web every day might be a little crazy. But many pop and country artists have played hundreds of shows a year all their lives. An album release every week is too much. But most musicians play constanly, and as I have found, generate a huge volume of recorded material that is never released. This is not always because it bad. Sometimes it is not released because it is not properly targetted, or is ill-timed, doesn't fit the mood of the day.

When you spin live televisual webcasting into this soup, and only universal Broadband will make this financially feasible, everything starts to look even more challenging for the artist. When to write, work and rest will be an even tougher question when any market gap you leave is filled not only by copycat artists, but also by bootleggers.

Seriously, can I expect an organisation like BMI, who are merely assigned collectors (and sometimes distributors) of cash to protect me? I think not. It seems that if I rest today, I may be exploited by bootleggers, but at least I am not forgotten. The way it used to be was that if an artist took two or three years out, they might never get back, not without a huge touring audience behind them. Today the problem is a different one. If I wish to take time out, how can I influence the way my work is exploited by others?

Answer - I can't. But in fact I have never been in control of that.

Diary

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