How Piracy Can Boost Business

Lobbyists dig in over controversial SOPA measure

(NEWSER) - A battle is heating up on Capitol Hill over a controversial new bill targeting online piracy. Yesterday Google, Facebook, Yahoo and other web companies took out full-page newspaper ads railing against the House’s recently introduced Stop Online Piracy Act, even as supporters sung its praises at a hearing. “The problem of rogue Web sites is real, immediate and widespread,” said sponsor Lamar Smith. The bill is backed by lobbyists from media and even pharmaceutical companies, who say piracy costs them $135 billion a year, the Washington Post reports. More»

Brit singer says she won't renew recording deal, has no plans for new album

(NEWSER) - After taking heaps of “abuse” for her campaign against music piracy, British pop star Lily Allen today shut down the blog she’d used to explain her side of the fight—only after she’d written that she wasn’t going to renew her recording deal and didn’t plan on another album. “She is not quitting pop music,” a rep tells NME.com about the 24-year-old, who’s still touring in support of her current record. More»

Singer ripped others' music for own mixes before she was a star

(NEWSER) - Singer Lily Allen has caused a stir with recent rants against music piracy (and a blog where she posts opinions from like-minded creative pals), but when she was trying to make it, she was guilty of just that offense. Allen included tracks from Jay-Z, Jefferson Airplane and others on mixtapes (still available, by the way) with her own songs, Michael Masnick notes in a Techdirt post "from the put-the-stone-down-lily,-that's-a-big-glass-house dept." More»

Each tech advance stirred unfounded fears: Kot

(NEWSER) - The Internet has so fragmented music that there may never be another big act like U2. But that’s just fine for music critic Greg Kot, author of Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music. “Art thrives best when it’s created without regard to making any kind of compromise,” he tells Time, saying labels have long forced artists to adapt to mainstream tastes. More»

(NEWSER) - Some big-name acts are getting behind Record Store Day, tomorrow’s celebration of independent music stores that have become an endangered species in the Internet age, USA Today reports. “We touched a nerve. So many people are passionate about record stores,” says a rep of the industry group behind the event, for which Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and others are releasing special tracks, playing live, or giving away prizes. More»