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Pete interview from The Hollywood Reporter



Thanks to Evan over at oddsandsods@thewho.net for spotting this:

Online at:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hollywoodreporter/convergence/article_displ
ay.jsp?vnu_content_id=925052

Online revenue g-g-generation: A Q&A with Pete Townshend

June 15, 2001

Pete Townshend is one of the best-known voices of his generation. As the
guitarist and main songwriter for The Who, his songs have enriched the lives
of countless rock music fans. His songs can also be heard in films such as
"Jerry Maguire," "Apollo 13," "Fever Pitch," "Rushmore" and "Austin Powers -
The Spy Who Shagged Me" as well as on Broadway and elsewhere. Townshend
helps support his creative ventures with his official commercial outlet
www.eelpie.com and a sanctioned site at www.petetownshend.com. He spoke to
The Hollywood Reporter's new media/technology reporter Chris Marlowe about
how the Internet has affected his nearly 40 years in the music industry.

THR: Many people have hypothesized that freely available music devalues it
and makes fans less likely to pay for music in the future. Do you agree?

Townshend: No. It is packaging that makes me buy CDs. Owning a beautiful
thing. I don't buy a Tom Waits CD to support him as a struggling artist, I
buy it because the artwork is usually as brilliant as the music. If all I
wanted was a few lead tracks I'd download them today from Napster and next
time I saw him I'd tell him I love him and - you know what, he'd be so
pleased he wouldn't even think to ask why.

THR: As a recording artist, do you think organizations like the RIAA and BMI
are acting in your best interests when they sue file sharing companies such
as Scour and Napster?

Townshend: No. BMI in particular should pay artists the money they have
collected on their behalves. It is that simple. If they do manage to sue
Napster who will get the cash? How will they distribute it? They can't even
properly account for performance fees taken from bands who perform their own
works on the road. They still rely on a general distribution based on some
random formula and sales that no one quite understands.

THR: What do you think of Napster?

Townshend: I don't use it. My son and I checked it out. It's interesting. It
will never make a cent. Mark my words. I already have a better idea.

THR: Have you discussed your Internet activities with your record label?

Townshend: I don't have a record label.

THR: You have said that the future is broadband entertainment. Why?

Townshend: Let's say The Who are in the recording studio. We decide to
perform a show from there. To reach 100 people at one time with decent sound
alone would cost my company about #45,000 every year for open bandwidth.
Most people on the receiving end wouldn't bother to log on unless they had
fast connections, but they would soon give up if they couldn't log on within
minutes. Moving images of decent quality require even more bandwidth at even
more cost. But once the cost comes down, there will be no stopping the
artists of this world. Freed from promoters, managers, agents, fixers ,
middlemen, press, and even accountants, they will perform like buskers
whenever they have the need. It's true piracy. Maybe what is happening
cost-wise is reflection of the fact that the large corporations have an
interest in keeping the cost of bandwidth high? That way at least they keep
the artists tied to the old methods a little longer.

THR: As broadband becomes more common, do you think your opinions about
downloading music will change?

Townshend: What you mean I'll want to charge people? I already do. I give
some stuff away (like I've always done on loss-making tours, the radio and
in home taping) and I sell some stuff. The one feeds the other.

THR: You have a retail component to your online presence. Does the income
make it worthwhile, or are there other reasons you do it?

Townshend: It's hugely lucrative for me. Our dollar gross ran into seven
digits in the first year of trading.

THR: You post many of your own songs on your Web site for your fans to
freely download. How do you select which tracks to give away?

Townshend: On a whim.

THR: Has the Internet changed anything the way you create, what you create,
or in how you perceive yourself as an artist?

Townshend: It has sharpened my sense of myself as an artist. I do more of
what I really want to do musically knowing that however arch or narrow I
become, there will be people I can find to touch. Ironically, that
self-indulgence frees me too. Pampered as I am by my Web site works, I am
far more willing to attend to my old established and readily recognized
methods. This has allowed me to do Who touring in the old manner without
feeling I am letting my artistic vision fester.

THR: Does the Internet make you more or less in control of your career?

Townshend: I control only what I put up on my site. Sadly, it is open to
misuse and misinterpretation (like normal press statements) because what I
say can be taken out of context, sequence or suffer because intended irony
is lost in translation to other mediums. I suppose there is no control
really. That's good I think. If there were too many Madonnas in this world
we'd all want Johnny Rotten back. I want him back anyway.

THR: You have been actively posting quite personal video diaries and
messages on your Web site. Why do you do this? You spend a lot of time on
it, and you're surprisingly intimate; do you get something out of it
yourself?

Townshend: I spend no time on it at all really. I'm an artist. You've seen
my guts already you just don't know it. The diaries are nothing more than
what I've always done in interviews. I'm not interested in secrets or facts,
just truth.

THR: Do you think your answers to these questions would be any different if
you weren't already successful?

Townshend: Yes. I've spoken to a lot of young artists who are trying to use
the Internet to build their names. It doesn't seem to work. If and when they
break they break in fairly normal ways. They get found by a publisher or
record company, or build up a large fan base from doing home-based live
shows. I already have a good name so the Internet works well for me.
© 2001 VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

        -Brian in Atlanta
         The Who This Month!
        http://members.home.net/cadyb/who.htm