Michael Geist, (who I’ve had the pleasure of sitting on the CIRA Board with for the last three years) has published this article where he dissects the Canadian music industry’s claims of damaged revenues from P2P file sharing.

The short version: the industry and artists are likely more than making their money back on reduced CD sales from royalties being distributed under the new blank media levy in Canada and indie labels and artists (people like us 🙂 think P2P downloads ultimately help sales.

When faced with nonsense from the industry about filesharing I always pose the question: Pretend you’re an artist. You write a song. It catches on like wildfire and millions of people download it, share it, tell their friends about it, and blare it out of their cars while they’re driving down the street. Cover bands cover it. DJ’s play it and netheads podcast it. From the artist’s, their manager’s and the label’s perspective: is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Anyone who argues it’s a “bad thing” needs to retire.

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