DOG IS DEAD INTERVIEW- 14/10/12
- Interview based around the effects the illegal downloading of music has on the music industry.
Me: So you've recently just released your new album called 'All Our Favourite Stories', how would you feel if some fans illegally downloaded this?
Joss: I think people are are now at the point where music is so readily available illegally, to the point where it's easier to get it illegally than it is legally. I think people that are gonna buy albums are gonna buy albums, people that aren't gonna buy albums aren't gonna buy albums. It doesn't matter if it's on torrent sites or not, it's gonna happen and I'd rather those people if it wasn't available for free... I mean if they didn't illegally download it they wouldn't buy it they'd watch it on YouTube or something so I'd rather they have it and then come to the shows and know all the words, than them not to have it at all. I'd much rather they could buy it, you know when I was 13 I couldn't afford to buy every record that came out so I would illegally download stuff and now I've gone through and bought all that music because I felt really bad about it and I don't like stealing stuff. But yeah.
Trev: I mean the one thing I'd say is that people nowadays don't seem to realise that like if if a band doesn't sell records or sell tickets for gigs then they won't make any money which means they won't be able to make another album.
Trev: Yeah they won't be able to do that. To be honest I think that if illegally downloading is so open nowadays... most people don't realise that especially people five years in front of us.
Joss: A lot of people don't realise it's so wrong either, like when I did it and I had Limewire [and] I didn't know it was illegal I thought it was just a way you could get music, like I thought there was something a bit dodgy but I didn't think it's as bigger deal as it is now.
Me: You're originally from Nottingham. Have you any idea out of the top ten in the UK for the place that's most illegally downloading music where Nottingham came?
Daniel: Second!
Joss: We're the second most illegally downloaded city.
Me: Did this shock you or?
All agree: Not really.
Joss: Nottingham is quite big with its crime so.
Trev: It was the gun crime capital of the UK.
Rob: It's not good I suspect but it's not bad.
Me: Do you think its fair for the people to illegally download?
Rob: Fair isn't the word.
Trev: I don't think it's fair no.
Joss: It totally depends like you know if its a bloke with £100,000 a year job doing it I think that's very different to a 13/14 year old guy doing it because....
Trev: (Interrupting) who's really passionate about music.
Joss: Who wants to listen to it and that's the only way he can get hold of it and it's the only way he can get it on his iPod is having it streamed on youtube or whatever.
Daniel: I think people don't really see music as a product anymore, they kind of see it more as a...
Trev: (Interrupting) something that they can have.
Daniel: Yeah something that they can have. I think that is the problem with the younger generation, although they don't have money now which is fair enough that it's kind of inbuilt into them and that that they don't have to buy music because its not something that needs to be purchased it's something that you can get for free.
Me: Some argue that if people are already downloading it then why should some pay for it? What is your opinion on this?
Daniel: That's a good question. I think that's the same with anything, I mean there are plenty of others who steal from shops and all that kind of thing and watch pirate movies you know it still doesn't mean that it's not the right thing to do you know to go to the cinema or buy a DVD.
Trev: I think Pirates Of The Caribbean was a really good children’s film.
Me: Do you think that there should be more restrictions on monitoring the downloading?
Trev: To be honest I don't think that would make much of a difference.
Joss: I think the way they're trying.
Rob: (Interrupting) I just think its impossible.
Joss: To monitor it is by punishing the people that download it instead of punishing the people that upload it and that means that our fans that put our song on Youtube... If this SOPA thing comes in our fans that have put something on YouTube cause they want people to hear it, face up to five years in prison which I don't think is fair.
Me: Do you think it will ever be enforceable to stop people downloading completely?
Joss: I think it could be, but I don't think it will because I think it will breach way too many privacy things.
Rob: Yeah it will go to a really extreme level.
Joss: Cause they'll have to monitor everything you download and that’s just not you can't do that.
Rob: Yeah cause then that's really into your privacy. Yeah and if you go to that depth then you probably end up also monitoring all the like bank details and stuff like that because its all on your computer.
Me: And the final question thank you for your time, do you think that downloading helps prevent new talent getting developed or does the downloading culture allow to develop new bands which are not as well known?
Trev: I think it's the whole kind of downloading streaming thing that has helped people artists kind of have that massive like, almost like a burst, you know they blow up and they go *whoosh* you know like Ed Sheeran and what not but at the same time you know yeah it kind of it does take.
Daniel: There's a lot less money in the music industry because of people illegally downloading music which means that a lot less bands get the investment that they need to go out to the wider audience, however the same technology... does allow people to get there music to the wider audience so its I think its actually rather than positive or negative its a bit more just changes the way that music is found... I think that actually in terms of artists breaking I think it just happens differently rather than rather than [more positively].
Joss: Yeah I think that sending your records to John Peel like you used to its now you...
Daniel: (Interrupting) you put it on YouTube.
Joss: You put it in on the internet and see how...
Rob: And people just take it for free and then that's how you get big rather than selling lots of records which obviously helps but it's all changed.
