If you haven’t heard about the Lily Allen / British musicians / illegal file sharing fiasco, well you’ve practically missed a real life gladiator fight played out on Twitter and various blogs. Over the past several weeks, Lily Allen, an artist perceived to be found on myspace, has been in defense of her stance on illegal file sharing.
On September 16th Upstart Blogger systematically posted this entry entitled “Meet the Music Industry’s New Misinformation Puppet and Learn How to Benefit From Her Tricks.” The blog post is a seemingly strategic rebuttal against various websites said to be speaking out against the public’s use of illegal file sharing. In this rebuttal post, Upstart Blogger directly attacks Allen and her record label, EMI, stating Allen is a puppet whose musical upstart from myspace is all a shame, simply made up by her record label. In this ‘faux reality’ Upstart Blogger also goes onto saying “… her songs were written and created by EMI and their banks of battery hen producers. Her apparent poor background was soon debunked when it was revealed that she was privately educated at some of the most prestigious schools in the country.”
Upstart Blogger was prepared for a war against Allen and EMI knowing full well they would come back in their defense. At the end of the blog post, UB states to pass on the public’s opinion through the same networks which have made Allen the phenom she is today, including sending messages to Allen via her twitter page. Since then, Upstart Blogger’s twitter account has been suspended and the EMI legal team seems to be tracking Upstart Blogger’s action rather closely (as stated in a recent blog post). Weird.
After this post, and as the barrage of messaging began on her Twitter page, Allen became a solo woman determined to justify her stance and hold her ground in a ring with a virtual angry mob. Allen took to her Twitter page (twitter.com/lilyroseallen), her myspace blog (myspace.com/lilymusic) and a hastily created and now defunct blog It’s Not Okay (http://idontwanttochangetheworld.blogspot.com/) in defense of herself, her stance, her music career and upcoming artists. The now deleted Blogspot showcased letters and emails from various other British artists gladly willing to join in her battle to fight against illegal file sharing.
After receiving quite a bit of flack from vocal blog readers and twitter-ers, the abuse became too much for Allen who stated “Just so you know, I have not renegotiated my record contract and have no plans to make another record….I do however remain a fan of new music, so this is not some selfish crusade….The days of me making money from recording music has been and gone as far as I’m concerned, so I don’t (at this point) stand to profit from legislation. Except future purchases of previously recorded material.”
Is this to be the end of Lily Allen as a musical artist? As of now it’s anyone’s guess. Allen states she is not planning to renew her contract or record another album. However, Allen’s publicist and record label EMI states she is not retiring, just promoting her latest album release “It’s Not Me, It’s You.”
Regardless of the outcome, this virtual soap opera is enough a reason to make some popcorn and watch the action unfold.
http://www.myspace.com/lilymusic
www.twitter.com/lilyroseallen
http://twitter.com/upstartblogger
http://www.upstartblogger.com
