illegal downloading

With the current witch hunt that seems to be going on by the industry against individuals and websites involved in illegal downloading of music it got me thinking of the old 80’s message that home taping was killing music! This slogan was designed to prick the conscience of the average law abiding music fan that would copy an album off a friend or record a track off the radio and make them think that because of their actions the whole industry was going to collapse.

So the question that I was thinking about was this, are their really any more people downloading music for free now than were illegally copying abums or taping off the radio back in the day?

I don’t think so, I am sure that almost everyone of a particular age at some point in their life taped a song off the radio or copied an album they didn’t buy and suprise suprise the industry survived. Now I am in no way supporting or condoning ripping off music for free I am just tired of hearing the same old scaremongering from the industry and it seems to me the only difference is that it is easier to track the culprits down these days.

The X Factor ruins christmas!

Is it just me or has the x factor ruined the christmas number one? I dont know if it is the same in the rest of the world but here in the UK the race for the christmas number one was always a big deal. Sure, sometimes the christmas number one would be a novelty record or something by cliff richard but it was always fun and if you cant have a terrible song at number one for christmas then when can you!
Part of the fun was that you knew that grandparents that hadn’t bought a chart single for years were going into record stores trying to buy a cd for their grandchildren and probably getting it horribly wrong!

But for the last three or four years the christmas number one has been a forgone conclusion, the x factor starts in autum and has a 12 week ad campaign then releases the winners single the week before christmas and what a suprise all the brainwashed go out and buy it!

This has now taken all the fun and magic out of the christmas number one, I have even noticed for the last couple of years other labels are not releasing as much during that week as if they know there is no point.

So come everyone lets not be brainwashed, lets put the fun back into the christmas charts and boycott the x factor single when it comes out, tell your grandparents now that you do not want to find that cd in your christmas stocking!