Blogs Set Off Facebook Frenzy

A blog post about the importance of paying for music is the hottest topic on Facebook among members of the Nashville music community—proof that the fight for compensation is a passionate as ever.

David Lowery, lead singer of Cracker and an instructor at the University of Georgia, unleashed an abrasive 4000 word diatribe on the subject at a blog called The Trichordist. It was in response to a post on NPR’s All Things Considered blog by intern Emily White, 21, who openly admitted that she doesn’t pay for music. White wrote:

As monumental a role as musicians and albums have played in my life, I’ve never invested money in them aside from concert tickets and T-shirts… I can’t support them with concert tickets and T-shirts alone. But I honestly don’t think my peers and I will ever pay for albums. I do think we will pay for convenience.

This is a tiny portion of Lowery’s response, which includes many pertinent points:

Is it really that inconvenient to download a song from iTunes into your iPhone? Is it that hard to type in your password? I think millions would disagree.

As MusicRow readers well know, the industry has been fighting illegal downloading and file-sharing for years, with little headway being made.

Today when the subject surfaces, social media quickens the spread of news, links, comments and opinions. So far, songwriters, publishers, studio managers, publicists and reporters have weighed in on the blogs penned by Lowery and White. Share your own thoughts below.