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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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