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Re: Digest V8 #30 - Pete on Napster Article
Pete Townshend Riffs on Napster
James Sullivan, Chronicle Pop Music Writer Sunday, January 28, 2001
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Unlike so many of his fellow artists, Pete Townshend doesn't seem
particularly worried about giving it away. "My Baby Gives It Away" is only
the most pertinent of the thousands of Townshend tracks to be found on
Napster these days.
Ever the gleeful contrarian, the guitarist recently admitted on his Web site,
www.petetownshend.com, that he and his son had just finished checking out
this Napster business for themselves.
Pete's bottom line: The bootleggers just make him work harder. "I think there
is enough for everyone," he wrote in the post, dated Jan. 10. In fact, "many
bootleggers do better work repackaging than record companies."
Napster, of course, isn't "packaged" at all; by keeping song files on their
hard drives, users make downloads available to anyone signed on at the time.
Townshend is saying that artists have always run the risk of losing control
of their images; Napster is just the latest slipstream.
"Radio stations, newspapers and magazines have freely used and abused the
reputation, work and images of pop artists for the last 50 years," he writes.
(Touche.) "Artists . . . can only run with publicity and hope for the best."
A few musicians have recognized the promotional aspect of having their stuff
on Napster. The Offspring drummed up publicity when the band began selling
Napster T-shirts on its Web site. John Vanderslice has made it clear that he
believes the future is now for downloadable music.
But there's a stigma attached to Napster that won't go away until the
service, now free, goes subscription. Oddly enough, Townshend writes that his
son was more uncomfortable about the ethics of downloading than the artist
himself: "He kept saying it was wrong to steal the music. I told him we were
listening to it, just that."
Townshend, of course, has long been an advocate of letting his public hear
plenty of "unofficial" material. His brimming demo collections, "Scoop" and
"Another Scoop," were pioneers of the sort. Lately he's been using his much-
trafficked Web site to market products such as his long-dormant "Lifehouse"
project.
It should also be noted that Pete Townshend, more so than most any other rock
star, is absolutely convinced that he deserves as vast an audience as
possible. This is the man who recently made it clear that he believes he's a
genius: "Not was a genius. Am a genius." Few pop stars would be as willing to
let fans hear their misfires and works-in-progress.
And there's a strong hint of begrudging here. Townshend takes pains to
suggest that BMI, the company responsible for collecting his royalties, has
never collected enough for him, so why should Napster be any different?
Caveats aside, Townshend's comments provide some overdue balance to the
Napster debate. "How can I influence the way my work is exploited by others?"
ol' Pete asks. "I can't. But I have never been in control of that."
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E-mail James Sullivan at jamessullivan@sfchronicle.com.
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