Today’s musical hero (or heroine) is Joss Stone, the independently-minded pop/R&B singer who likes to perform barefoot and doesn’t seem to care much whether people download her songs illegally or burn them to whatever they want — in fact, she’s in favour of such behaviour. Why? Because music should be shared, she says:
“I think it’s brilliant and I’ll tell you why,” Stone said. “Music should be shared. […] The only part about music that I dislike is the business that is attached to it. Now, if music is free, then there is no business, there is just music.
It’s okay, if one person buys it, it’s totally cool — burn it up, share it with your friends, I don’t care. I don’t care how you hear it as long as you hear it. As long as you come to my show, and have a great time listening to the live show it’s totally cool. I don’t mind.”
Video of the actual interview is here. TorrentFreak has more about Joss’s feelings on piracy, and Mashable has a take on it as well. Some other artists share their views on downloading and music in this recent New York Times piece, and reports continue to come in about musicians giving away music to create demand for live performances. And if you really want to reach back into the Internet time machine and find a female singer with a tremendously level-headed approach to downloading and file-sharing, check out what Janis Ian wrote back in 2002.
Update:
John Hiatt has some similar thoughts about the evolution of the music business. Thanks to Changing Way for the link.